I am a marine environmental scientist by training (U Oldenburg, 2001) with a PhD in atmospheric physics (U Wuppertal, 2005) and a strong modeling focus throughout my career.

Archaological modeling

I have built models (C, C++) for understanding the regional transitions from hunting-gathering subsistence to agropastoral life styles throughout the world. The fundamental principle of these models is to consider aggregate traits of populations, such as the preference for a subsistence style. I applied these models to the European “Wave of Advance”, to the disintegration of the urban Indus civilisation and to the differential emergence of agropastoralism in the Americas versus Europe, but also globally. An interesting outcome of these models are global and reginoally resolved prehistoric CO2 emissions caused by the land use transitions.

Ecosystem modeling

I have built and applied models for understanding the ecological relations and biogeochemical flows through the North Sea ecosystem. Also for this research I apply trait-based models, looking at traits such as vertical positioning or energy allocation. As an outcome, I have, e.g., estimated the biomass of blue mussels in the North Sea and quantified the effect of Offshore Wind Farm biofouling on the sea’s produtivity.

Model coupling

I led the development of the Earth System coupler MOSSCO, leveraging ESMF technologies. I like to rip legacy models apart and reconstruct them with interoperability and reusability by design. I contribute to building the next-generation modular hurricane forecasting system.

Good scientific modeling practices

As a member of the Open Modeling Foundation (OMF), I am an evangelist of good scientific software practices, and educate and publish about improving underlying assumptions, stating clear purposes, keeping models simple and aquiring tools to further good practices.

Ken Buetow is a human genetics and genomics researcher who leverages computational tools to understand complex traits such as cancer, liver disease, and obesity. He currently serves as director of Computational Sciences and Informatics program for Complex Adaptive Systems at Arizona State University (CAS@ASU), is a professor in the School of Life Sciences in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; is a core faculty in the Center for Evolution and Medicine in the Biodesign Institute at ASU; and is director of bioinformatics and data management for the National Biomarker Development Alliance.

Professor Buetow previously served as the Founding Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology within the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute.

Ronja Hotz is a PhD student in the Land Use Change & Climate Research Group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where she has been working since August 2023. Her research focuses on understanding and modelling the social processes underlying land use change using agent-based modelling, with a particular emphasis on the CRAFTY framework. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Freie Universität Berlin and a Master’s degree in Theoretical Physics from Technische Universität Berlin.

Prior to her PhD, she worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, where she implemented a generic decision-making layer for land managers in agent-based socio-ecological models. The framework was analysed in a stylised model to investigate emergent dynamics and critical transitions and was subsequently integrated into the InSEEDS model, which simulates the adoption of conservation agriculture at regional to global scales.

Archaeologist from Brazil, working with shellmound population dynamics in agent-based modelling.