Function and Responsibilities:

Research Interests:

• Geomagnetism,
  
• magnetospheric/ionospheric physics,
• plasma physics,
• current systems,
  
• upper atmosphere,
  
• space weather,
  
• instrument development.

Career:

1996 - 2016          Senior Scientist, GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Section 2.3 “Earth’s Magnetic field”

2013 - 2016          Visiting Professor at College of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, China

1996 - 2012          Professor of Geophysics, Techn. University Braunschweig

1992 & 1994 (March) Visiting Scientist, Space Magnetism, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Japan     

1990 – 1995          Associate Professor, Inst. of Geophysics and Meteorology, Techn. University Braunschweig

1983 – 1990          Assistent Professor, Inst. of Geophysics and Meteorology, Techn. University Braunschweig

1974 – 1983          Research Assistent, Inst. of Geophysics and Meteorology, Techn. University Braunschweig

Education:

• Studies of Physics, Techn. University Braunschweig, Diploma, Dec. 1973
• Doctor rerum naturum, Techn. University Braunschweig, May 1980
• Habilitation, venia legendi in Geophysics, Techn. University Braunschweig, Feb. 1990

Projects:

1975 – 1989           Experimenter for magnetic field measurements on 20 sounding rockets in 5 different campaigns

1983 – 1991           Principal Investigator of the Magnetic Field Team on the German/US satellite AMPTE-IRM

1988 - present       Co-Experimenter in the Magnetic Field Teams of the satellites missions Freja, Equator-S, Cluster and Ørsted

1990 – 1995           Principle Investigator of the ground-based magnetometer network IMAGE in Northern Europe

1996 - 2008           CHAMP Payload and Mission Manager

2000 - 2012           Principal Investigator, CHAMP Magnetic Field Investigations and Head of the CHAMP Science Operation System

2004 - 2014           Co-Principal Investigator of ESA’s Earth Observation Mission SWARM.

2008 – 2012          Project Director of the CHAMP mission

2009 – 2014          Head of German SWARM Project Office

2009 – 2017         Co-coordinator of DFG Priority Programme “Planatary Magnetic Fields”, SPP-1488

2014 – 2017          Speaker of DFG Priority Programme “DynamicEarth”, SPP-1788

Research Boards and Committees:

1990 - 1996 & 2000   Member of the Peer Group at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for the evaluation of extraterrestrial research projects

1998 - 2002             Member of the Technical Review Boards for the US/German satellite project GRACE (GRAvity and Climate change Experiment)

2002 - 2015            Founding Member of the Coordination Committee of CEDIM (Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology)

2002 - 2014           Member of ESA’s Mission Advisory Group for the SWARM satellite project

2008 - 2010           Associate Editor of AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research, Space Physics

2008 – 2017          Member of Board of Trustees „Wernher-von-Braun Foundation for Support of Space Sciences“, Berlin

2009 – present       German delegate of the ISO Aerospace Standards Committee

2010 – present       Member and secretary of the Copernicus e.V. for the Promotion of International Collaboration in the Geo- and Space Sciences

2010 - present      Coordinator of the Copernicus Medal

2011 – 2014         Member of the International Advisory Committee for the "Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific", India

2013 – present     Associate Editor for journal Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

Awards:

1986                           NASA, AMPTE Team Group Achievement Award

1999                           TERMA, Ørsted Team Achievement Award

2003                           Wernher-von-Braun Medal, German Aero-Space Society

2004                           Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

2004                           NASA, Cluster Science Team Group Achievement Award

2010                           Fellow of the American Geophysical Union

2011                           Julius-Bartels Medal of the European Geoscience Union

2012                           GFZ award: Senior Scientist of the Year