Climate and Climate Change - Course at the TH Nürnberg, summer semester 2023

In the summer semester of 2023, I will be holding a course (in English) at the TH Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm on "Climate and Climate Change". With this course I want to teach students of all disciplines the scientific basics of the climate system and the relevant processes, so that they can assess statements about the climate and climate change in an educated way. The course will take place weekly every Tuesday at 14:00-15:30 from 21 March to 27 June 2023. The course language is English, so the course is suitable for international guest and exchange students. Details can be found in the Course Catalogie of the TH Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm.

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Summer School on Greenhouse Gases in Southampton, 10-16 July 2022

I'm one of the organisers of an International Summer School on Greenhouse Gases at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton in July; applications are open until 28 February. This intensive 1-week course with a mixture of lectures, exercises and excursions is aimed at PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the natural sciences who want to develop a solid understanding of the role of key greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth system and the processes that govern their dynamics in the atmosphere, ocean and biosphere.

The Summer School is funded by the DARE-UK project at the University of Briston; more details and links to the application form can be found on the DARE-UK-Website.

I had organised the first Summer School on Global Greenhouse Gases in Edinburgh in 2015, when I was working as a project manager at the University of Edinburgh, two more summer schools (2016 and 2017) followed in Southampton. We had planned this summer school already for 2020 but had to postpone it twice due to Corona; we hope that the situation improves enough this year for the summer school to go ahread.

Algacraft: a new biotech startup for algae research and applications

With several friends I am now a founding member of a new startup company: Algacraft LTD. Unicellular algae are a promising area for many future applications, from carbon capture to mitigate atmospheric greenhouse gas increases via the treatment of waste water and organic waste to the production of nutrients, food supplements and pharmaceutical substances. We develop a modular bioreactor for research that can grow many samples automatically in parallel under individual conditions. This saves time and effort. We will also provide this as a service to research institutes and commercial companies. The CEO ist Máté Ravasz, the trustees are (in alphabetical order) Daniel Budinov, Jiří Jirout, Stephan Matthiesen, Máté Ravasz and Matjaz Vidmar. Algacraft LTD is registered in Scotland private limited company under the number SC637776

New website "principia": observing and understanding natural phenomena (in German)

Observing and understanding natural phenomena - this is the motto of principia. The new website (in German) is dedicated to patterns, structures and other phenomena that you can observe around you. It is curated by Andrea Kamphuis and Stephan Matthiesen.

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Zwei Reisen ans Ende der Welt

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Pongo and Mouse and the leaves on the path

"There are awfully many leaves on the path in Craigmillar Castle Park", said Mouse.

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1816, the Year without a Summer - Talk in Nuremberg, 15 Oct 2018

On Monday, 15 October 2018, I will give a talk (in German) on "Climate and history: 1816, the year without a summer" at the Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft (NHG). After the eruption of the volcano Tampora, Indonesia, in April 1815 the following year 1816 was a "year without summer" in Europe with cool, wet weather. This presentations discusses, what we know about the impact of the volcano on the world climate, and what this event meant for the people.

The presentation will be at 19:30 in the Katharinensaal of the City Library in Nuremberg (Am Katharinenkloster 5).

More information on the relation between climate and human history can be found (in German) on my website Klima und Geschichte.

Time for something new: From university to freelance work

On the 31st of October my contract at the University of Edinburgh came to an end, and I will work mainly freelance in future. Since 2006 I have worked at the School of Geosciences at the University as scientific project manager in different climate-related research projects, but I also worked freelance translating and editing scientific books.

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Climate and History: Cultures in the 22nd century AD - Talk in Nuremberg, 18 Oct 2017

New website on climate and history (in German) online

My new website "Klima und Geschichte" ("climate and history") is now online at the URL www.klima-und-geschichte.de. With this website I combine my interests in archaeology with my interests in climate science.

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