Biography

I am a space scientist based in Graz, Austria, where I work on heliospheric weather forecasting - think of meteorology, but in space. I am head and founder of the Austrian Space Weather Office (established in 2022) at the GeoSphere Austria, the prime institution for basic and applied research in meteorology, climate, geology and geophysics in Austria.

My main research interests are the interplanetary evolution, 3D structure and global shape of solar storms (coronal mass ejections, CMEs) with multi-platform in situ and imaging observations by SDO, SOHO, STEREO, Wind, ACE, Venus Express, MESSENGER, MAVEN, Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter and Bepi Colombo with empirical, analytical and numerical modeling. We also work towards methods to be used on data provided by the ESA Vigil mission, foreseen to be launched by the end of the decade, and possible fleets of interplanetary small satellites.

I played a large part in developing the new field of interpreting heliospheric imager observations, provided by STEREO, Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe, and in the future PUNCH and Vigil. I invented a new 3D CME flux rope model (3DCORE), and I work on algorithms for the real time prediction of the solar wind, the aurora and geomagnetically induced currents with physical modeling in combination with classical machine learning and deep learning. Plus, sometimes I like to think about the influence of stellar space weather on the detection of life on exoplanets.

In 2011-2012, I was a European Union Marie-Curie fellow at the University of California in Berkeley. In 2016, I was awarded with the Arne Richter Award, the highest honor for young researchers of the European Geosciences Union. In 2022, I received an ERC Consolidator Grant to work on solutions for the Bz problem in space weather prediction.