About


Contact | Education | Career | Projects | Awards | Professional activities

Contact details

Thünen Institute of Biodiversity
Bundesallee 65 | 38116 Braunschweig | Germany
Phone: +49 (0)531 596-3325
Website: https://www.thuenen.de/en/institutes/biodiversity

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Education

2016: Dr. rer. nat (PhD equivalent) in Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

  • Overall grade: magna cum laude
  • Thesis title: Understanding spatial patterns of land-system change in Europe.
  • Reviewers: Tobias Kuemmerle (supervisor), Tobia Lakes, and Ariane Walz.
  • Thesis grade: magna cum laude
  • Defense grade: summa cum laude

2009: M.Sc. in Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

  • Overall grade: excellent (1.0)
  • Thesis title: Modeling of groundwater flows and heat transport in a peri-urban river valley flood plain.
  • Supervisors: Gunnar Nützmann and Tobia Lakes.
  • Thesis grade: excellent (1.0)

2006: B.Sc. in Geography, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

  • Overall grade: excellent (91 %)
  • Thesis title: The influence of lighting systems on show cave microclimate shown at the examples of Punkva Cave (Czech Republic) and Jewel Cave (USA).
  • Supervisor: Andreas Pflitsch.
  • Thesis grade: excellent (100%)

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Career

since 2023: Research Group Leader (Senior Scientist)

  • Thünen Institute of Biodiversity
  • Head of Department: Prof. Dr. Jens Dauber

2020 – 2023: Assistant Professor in Sustainable Land Use

  • Department of Environmental Geography, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Head of Department: Prof. Dr. Peter H. Verburg

2018 – 2020: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  • Department of Computational Landscape Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
  • Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia
  • School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia
  • Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Ralf Seppelt & Prof. Dr. Navin Ramankutty

2016 – 2018: Postdoctoral Researcher

  • Conservation Biogeography, Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tobias Kuemmerle

2011 – 2016: Doctoral Researcher

  • Conservation Biogeography, Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tobias Kuemmerle

2009 – 2010: Research Assistant

  • Geoinformation Science, Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tobia Lakes

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Projects

2022 – 2026: EU Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action

  • Title: “PathFinder – Towards an Integrated Consistent European LULUCF Monitoring and Policy Pathway Assessment Framework”
  • Role: co-I, WP lead

2022 – 2026: Dutch Research Council (NWO)

  • Title: “Bright spots of climate smart agriculture – learning from high-performing farming systems (BrightspotsCSA)”
  • Role: co-I

2018 – 2021: EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship (IF-GF)

  • Title: “FFSize – Why farm and field size matters: Exploring their role for food security and sustainable agriculture in South America”
  • Role: PI, Experienced Researcher

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Awards

2018: UBC Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow (honorary).

2018: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Global Fellowship within European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

2016: Travel grant by the German Academic Exchange Service to attend the 3rd Global Land Project – Open Science Meeting, Beijing, China.

2010: ESRI sponsors grant for researchers to attend the 13th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science, Guimarães, Portugal.

2007: Travel grant by the Ruth und Gert Massenberg foundation to attend the Symposium on Cave Climatology at Wind Cave, Hot Springs, South Dakota, USA.

Monetary value of awards withheld.

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Professional activities

Reviewer for peer reviewed journals

Science Advances, PNAS, Nature Sustainability, Nature Food, Global Environmental Change, Environmental Research Letters, Scientific Reports, One Earth, Applied Geography, Agricultural Systems, Regional Environmental Change, Landscape and Urban Planning, Land, Journal of Land Use Science, Journal of Biogeography, Ecology and Society, Conservation Letters, Land Use Policy, Science of the Total Environment, Remote Sensing in Earth Systems Science, European Journal of Forest Research, Land Degradation and Development

currently 36 reviews for 22 journals

Panels

  • Member of the Panel of Experts for the project “Promoting and shaping the EU Restoration Agenda through mobilisation of rewilding principles to create a coherent Ecological Network in Europe” (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Rewilding Europe, WWF European Policy Office, BirdLife Europe and European Environmental Bureau) (2017 – ongoing).

Committees

  • Member of the promotion committee for Dr. Cornelius Senf, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (2016).
  • Member of the promotion committee for Dr. María Piquer-Rodriguez, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (2017).
  • Member of the promotion committee for Dr. Victor Baranov, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (2017).

Administration

  • Appointed member of the examination committee (Faculty of Science) and sub-examination committee (Environment and Resource Management study programme) for the Institute for Environmental Studies – IVM, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2021 – ongoing).
  • Elected member of the institutional board of the Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany (2012 – 2014 & 2016 – 2018).

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