Function and Responsibilities:

Scientific director and spokesperson of the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Career:

2022 – present: Scientific director GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam
2020 – present: Professor for Tectonics and Geodynamics, RWTH Aachen University
2017 – 2020: Leader of the Team for Solid Earth Geology at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU).
2012 – 2016: Leader of the Team for Geodynamics at NGU.
2010 – 2020: Adjunct Professor (20%), Centres of Excellence CEED/PGP, Oslo University
2006 – 2020: Senior researcher in Geodynamics at NGU (full-time).
2004 – 2006: Postdoctoral researcher Geodynamics, NGU.
2003 – 2004: Postdoctoral researcher Geodynamics, Dalhousie University, Canada.
2000 – 2003: Postdoctoral researcher Structural Geology, University of Bern, Switzerland.

Education:

Ph.D. in Tectonophysics at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Thesis: Surface deformation resulting from subduction and slab detachment.

M.Sc. in Geophysics at Utrecht University. Thesis: Modelling the seismic velocity structure beneath southern Indonesia.

Research Boards and Committees:

Offices as Scientific Executive Director 

• Member of the Economic Council of the State Capital Potsdam (2024-2026)
• Chair of the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Science Media Center Germany GmbH e.V. (2024 - present)
• Member of the Board of Directors of Geo.X, Research Network for Geosciences in Berlin and Potsdam (2022-present)
• Member of the Advisory Board of DVGeo, Umbrella Organization of Geosciences in Germany (2022-present)
• Member of the Board of Directors of GeoUnion (Alfred-Wegner-Foundation) (2022-present)
• Vice-President of the Helmholtz Research Platform Earth and Environment (as of 01.01.2024)
• Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors of LAUF e.V., State Association for Non-University Research Brandenburg (2022-present)
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the Geo-Centre at the KTB (2022-present)
• Member of the Founders’ Assembly of the Potsdam Research Network Pearls (2022-present)
• Member and Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of ProWissen e.V. (2022-present)
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the German Science Journalists’ Association WPK (2022-present)
• Member of the Supervisory Board and the Founders' Board of the Central Asian Institute for Applied Geosciences CAIAG (2022-present)
• Member of the Board of Directors of GeoLab – A geoscientific underground laboratory (2022-present)
• Member of the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (2022-present) 

Community positions

• Executive Board Member of the International Association for Structural Geology and Tectonics of the International Union of Geosciences IUGS (2022-2024)
• Officer for the Commission on Tectonics and Structural Geology of the IUGS (2020-2022)
• Chair of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Programme Committee (2017–2019)
• President of the Tectonics and Structural Geology Division (TS) of EGU (2013–2017)
• Member EGU Outreach Committee (2014–2018)
• Member of the Long-Term Tectonics working group of the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics CIG (2016–2021)
• Programme Officer of the EGU Tectonics & Structural Geology and Geodynamics Divisions (2009–2013)
• Member of > 10 Scientific Committees
• Convener of >30 sessions at EGU, IGC and AGU
• (Co-)Organiser of 7 international workshops and conferences

Editorial activities

• Coordinator of pre-print server EGUsphere, www.egusphere.net (2021-2022)
• Executive editor of Solid Earth, the open access journal of EGU (2019-present)
• Associate editor of Solid Earth Geophysics of Frontiers in Earth Sciences (2017–2020)
• Associate editor of Geological Magazine (2015–2022)
• Topic Editor of Solid Earth, the interactive open access journal of EGU (2009–2013)
• (Co-)Editor of 3 books and 3 special issues

Awards:

Elected member of Academia Europaea (2024 - )

Union Service Award of the European Geosciences Union, 2022

Plenary Lectures at the CSDMS annual meeting in Boulder, USA (2019), the Dutch Earth Science Meeting (2018), the XVI Brazilian tectonics symposium & X international symposium on tectonics (2017), and the Swiss Geoscience Meeting (2017)

AGU 2017 editors’ citation for excellence in refereeing in G-cubed

Young Outstanding Scientist Award of the Norwegian Research Council, 2007