KIT - Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research

Our values

"The failure to recognize the inequality of privilege is the greatest social failure of our time." C. C. Holst

Promoting talent, holistic personal development and a benevolent working environment are very important to us. Our scientists have spent many years in different countries on different continents. Our mix of experience, theory, measurement, simulation, application and transfer enables us to combine broad and deep ideas in a short space of time.

We are almost exclusively academics from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, who often started their lives under precarious economic conditions, so we have a special understanding of the needs and challenges that such a career entails. Responsibility is democratized in our group; in order for this familial bottom-up concept to work, our group is small and diverse.

Our Team

	Christopher C. Holst - Acting group leader Christopher finished his B.Sc. in meteorology in 2012 at Leibniz Universität in Hannover (Germany) and his Ph.D. in Energy and Environment in 2017 at City University in Hong Kong (China). Since 2017 he is part of this group, initially as research scientist and since 2022 as acting group leader. Prior to his academic education and career he served as military radar operator in the KFOR mission as part of the multi-national recce coy. His research in urban meteorology started in 2012, initially with investigations of heavy precipitation. Since 2016 the focus shifted towards representativeness of measurements and simulations in urban spaces. Around 2022 another shift of interest towards air quality started. His expertise revolves around numerical simulations of urban meteorology and measurements of urban wind fields using Doppler wind lidar.
	Gamze Koç - Scientific researcher Dr. Gamze Koç is a researcher at the IMKIFU since 2021, with a PhD in Natural Hazards and Risk Research from the University of Potsdam. Trained as a hydrogeological engineer, she brings an interdisciplinary perspective to climate risk assessment, flood hazard modeling, and disaster resilience planning. Her research focuses on flood-triggering mechanisms, economic loss modeling, and the development of disaster databases, with regional applications. She also contributes to the development of digital online tools that support science-based decision-making and stakeholder engagement for regional climate change adaptation strategies.
	Hawwa Kadum - Scientific researcher Dr. Hawwa Kadum joined the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2021, where she participates in the KIT YIG Prep Pro initiative, preparing her independent research group proposal on land–atmosphere feedback over heterogeneous surfaces. Her research focuses on boundary layer meteorology, turbulence, fluid dynamics, statistical analysis and parameterisation, land surface heterogeneity, energy imbalance, and wind energy Her work contributes to improving the representation of land–atmosphere interactions in weather and climate models.
	Changxing Lan - Scientific researcher Dr. Changxing Lan is a postdoctoral researcher at IMKIFU since Mar. 2022. Before joining the group, he received his Ph.D. in Environmental sciences from Washington State University (U.S.A.), with a dissertation on “Turbulence structures across layers in stable boundary layer”. He contributed to the ICOS-Cities project, working on turbulence measurements in urban boundary layer mainly using eddy covariance technique. A main theme of his research is investigating turbulent transport processes that control the exchange of energy and greenhouse gases between the surface and the atmosphere in urban environments.
	Luitpold Hingerl - Doctoral researcher Luitpold Hingerl is a researcher at the IMKIFU and a doctoral candidate at the University of Augsburg since 2022. His research focuses on land–atmosphere interactions in the West African Sudanian savanna, using long term eddy covariance measurements to investigate how different land use conditions and contrasting ecosystems affect the exchange of water, energy, and carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere. He played a leading role in establishing eddy covariance and climate monitoring stations within the WASCAL observatory network. He also contributes to the processing, harmonization, and publication of long-term environmental datasets.
	Ingo Völksch - Engineering scientist Details on the way.
	Carsten Jahn - Engineer / Staff council Campus Alpin Dipl.Ing. (FH) Carsten Jahn got his degree in environmental protection and has been a technical staff member at IMKIFU since 1999. His responsibilities include the maintenance and operation of measuring instruments during monitoring campaigns and at long-term monitoring sites such as TERENO and ICOS. In addition to his work in the department, he serves as the staff council chairperson for the KIT Garmisch-Partenkirchen office, i.e., IMKIFU. He is also responsible for occupational safety and health at IFU and conducts the necessary training sessions for his colleagues there.
	Stefan Sellmaier - Engineer M.Sc. Stefan Sellmaier finished training as a car mechatronics technician. He then completed his study automotive mechatronics with a master’s degree in February 2024. He specialized in control engineering, sensors and actuators. In March 2024 he joined KIT as a field engineer and works on the supervision and maintenance of the eddy-covariance (EC) stations and micrometeorological measurements at the TERENO preAlpine observatories of IMK-IFU. He contributes to the labelling process as ICOS-associated stations increasingly involved in processing of the collected EC data and their scientific analysis.

Former research group members
Name
Mares Barekzai
Frederik De Roo
Stefan Emeis
Renate Forkel
Sadiq Huq
Basit Khan
Konstantin Kröniger
Daniel Leukauf
Matthias Mauder
Simon Siedersleben
Kevin von Chaulin
Luise Wanner
Matthias Zeeman