Industrial qualification machinist, Atlas Weyhaus KG
10/1984 - 07/1985 and 12/1986 - 07/1990 (discontinuity by civilian service)
Study of Geosiences, University Kiel
Diploma degree (MSc) at Institut and Museum of Geology und Palaeontology, University Kiel: Late Pleistocene environmental record of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea as reflected by the “Meteor” core GIK 23269-1, Kartierung: On the geology of the Sulzl Valley, Lechtal Alps, Austria.
08/1990 - 05/1994
Study to achieve doctoral thesis at the University Heidelberg
Dr. (Ph.D.) at the Institut and Museum of Geology and Palaeontology of the University Heidelberg: MVT type ore formation and diagenetic evolution of the Karawanken Range (Austria/Slovenia)
04/1994
Research fellow at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, SFB 275
02/2001
Habilitation: Post-collisional geodynamic evolution of the Alps and the circum-Alpine region
10/2006-
apl. Professor Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
09/2008
Domain expert geosciences at the Eidgenössische Nuklearsicherheitsinspektorat ENSI
Research
Long-term activity since 1994 is dedicated to Cenozoic Erosion and Uplift of the Alps, based on sediment budget, low-temperature thermochronology, provenance, palaeogeography. This work is connected to TOPO Europe, particularly TOPO Alps, THERMO Alps and Source to sink budget and palaeogeographic evolution of the Danubian catchment and Alpine-Carpathian chain.
Strong activity since 2000 is dedicated to the glaciation of Corsica and the Mediterranean, focussing on mountain paleoclimate reconstruction, but including glacial processes and landscape formation. Along with this, I run a monitoring programme for montane to alpine climate in Corsica.
Strong climate fluctuations in the Little Ice Age inspired a dendroclimatologic study, together with Universities Erlangen and Göttingen. In this study, pine trees are currently studied for growth pattern, oxygen isotope composition, and trace elements.
Frequent activity since 2000 is dedicated to exhumation of reactivated crystalline basement in the Mediterranean, mainly Corsica, Sardinia, and Rila (Bulgaria).
Sporadic activity since 2001 is dedicated to Rates of weathering and erosion of crystalline basement, mainly in Corsica, but also in the Sudetes and the mountains in southeastern Europe (Rila, Shara, South Carpathians)
Teaching
1994 - 2008, teaching included the following courses:
yearly: 2 h undergraduate course in rock determination
yearly: 2 h undergraduate course in geological maps and profiles
yearly since spring 2002: 1 h lecture introduction to Earth history (undergraduate)
yearly since autumn 2002: 2 h interpretation of air photos and remote sensing data (graduate)
Various field courses of more than 30 days of annual average until 2008 included both excursions of 1 to 12 days and mapping courses/field camps of 15 to 17 days. This curriculum included a major part of regional geology of central-northern Europe and varying spectacular targets in the Mediterranean (field camps e.g. Naxos, SW Sardinia, Elba, Corsica). The curriculum spanned from integrated natural science excursions for undergraduate students, including basics of botany, ecology, and morphology, to complex geodynamic field camps for graduate and Ph.-D. students with integrated thin section microscopy of local rocks and study of stereoscopic air photos.
Since 2008, my full-time job in Switzerland restricts my teaching activity to:
a 3-day excursion to the Wutach canyon in the southern Black Forest for freshmen and students selecting geology as subsidiary subject, showing the profile from Variscan basement through the Mesozoic cover rocks (yearly)
a 3-day excursion to Sustenpass/CH, showing glacial landscape (yearly)
a 10-day excursion to Corsica, with a focus either on Quaternary or Neogene topics, or the whole geologic spectrum
