Research Group

Current Group Structures and Members

Deutscher Wetterdienst is a federal institution with a strong business area of research. The department for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) has about 115-120 scientists in house in four divisions (55-60 permanent). There are 7 leading scientists directly reporting to the NWP department head and/or head of research, including the four division heads. All other scientists report to the four division heads in my department:

FE11 Division Head on Data Assimilation and Predictability
FE12 Division Head on Observations Modeling and Verification
FE13 Division Head on Numerical Modeling
FE14 Division Head on Physical Parametrization and Dispersion Modeling
Hans-Ertel Center (HErZ) DWD-Theme-Co-Leader Reanalysis
Hans-Ertel Center (HErZ) DWD-Theme-Co-Leader Data assimilation
Hans-Ertel Center (HErZ) DWD-Theme-Co-Leader Modelling & Parametrization

Also, there are several PhD students in my group.

We have regular meetings within NWP:

Division Heads (once to twice per month)
Division Member Meeting (once to twice per month or weekly)
Routine Meeting Coordination (every Tuesday 9-10am)
Group meetings, e.g. of the DA-Algorithm Group, RADAR Group, Satellite Group, Ensemble Group, …

and for coordinating development and operations of NWP within DWD:

KG NWV (coordination group numerical weather prediction) led by head of NWP

Our development is taking place in a network of partners including

the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI-M),
the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ),
Deutscher Wetterdienst
the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT),
the COSMO Consortium for Small Scale Modelling with the weather services of Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Greece, Russia, Poland, Israel.
the climate center C2SM in Switzerland
the Hans-Ertel-Centre (HErZ) in Munich, Bonn/Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin
German Research Center for Geosciences (GfZ) Potsdam
Many further Universities …

We have an intensive interaction with these institutions and many scientists in different steering groups, working groups and committees. There are international and national coordination groups:

COSMO Steering Committee (COSMO-STC) (2-3 times a year)
ICON-D5 Directors Group (with C5 participating) (every 3 months)
ICON-C5 Coordination Group (every two weeks)
ICON-Seamless Coordination Group (4-6 weeks)

ICON-Seamless Working Group Meetings

Atmosphere,
Atmosphere-Land,
Atmosphere-Ocean,
Data Assimilation

ICON-Consolidated Meetings

We run yearly workshops and training:

ICCARUS (ICON/COSMO/CLM/ART User Seminar) in March
COSMO General Meeting (COSMO-GM) in September
ICON Training Course in the fourth quarter of the year

as well as further workshops and symposia in cooperationwith partners, e.g. the

International Symposium on Data Assimilation (ISDA)

PhDs Students (and some selected Master and Postdocs)

Supervision of PhD studentships often takes place within a team of supervisors, particularly at Reading University and Imperial College, where I have been heavily involved. It is usually expected that the first official supervisor is employed at the university where the PhD student will defend their thesis. The traditional concept of a “doctoral father or mother” can be difficult to attribute to a single individual, as there may be multiple mentors. Additionally, in our department at DWD, we have many researchers working in postdoctoral positions (currently more than 50), who are not listed here.

Anne Rojahn, Principal Supervisor, PhD 17, DWD+Reading, 2017-2024 (Part Time, Particle Filters) https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/116950/
Dr. Babatunde Odunuga, Principal Supervisor, PhD 16, Reading, 2015-2023 (Part Time, Machine Learning for Model Reconstruction) https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/113609/
Gesa Brunn und Pia von Kolken, Master Studentships Universität Dortmund, Completion 7/2022, (Artificial Intelligence for Weather Forecasting)
Dr. Jannik Wilhelm, Co-Supervision, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Life-Cycle Convective Cells), PhD Web
Dr. Jason Otkin, PhD 15; University of Reading & Wisconsin (USA), 10/2015-2/2020 (SEVIRI Satellite Data Assimilation) https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/101616/, PDF
Dr. Jehan Alswaihli, PhD 14; University of Reading, 10/2014-11/2019, Neuroscience https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/93937/
Nora Amelie Schenk, Master Studentin an der Universität Frankfurt, Abschluss 12/2019, Hauptbetreuer (New Methods of Data Assimilation, Particle Filter)
Dr. Frederick Kurzrock, 3rd Supervisor, PhD Student, La Reunion, France, 5/2019 (Satellite Data Assimilation with KENDA), finanziert durch Reuniwatt La Reunion/Paris https://scanr.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/person/idref237501317
Dr. Aamir Nadeem, PhD 13; 03/2013-03/2017 (Inverse Flow Problems) https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/liste+der+dissertationen/662127.html, http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-6330
Dr. Theresa Bick, 2nd Supervisor, PhD University of Bonn, 2012-16 (RADAR Data Assimilation) https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/7117 Theresa has carried out her PhD with the data assimilation system of DWD.
Dr. Africa Perianez, PhD 12 Student, Reading 2012-2014 (EnKF with SEVIRI Observations) https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/67493/
Dr. Natalie Lowery, PhD 11 Student, Reading 2009-13 (Discrimination Methods on Ill-Posed Problems) https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32321/
Dr. Alexander Moodey, PhD 10 Student, Reading 2009-13 (Stability of Data Ass. Methods) PDF
Dr. Ndifreke Udosen, PhD 9 Student, Reading (2008-2012) (Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)/Meta-Inverse Problems/Targeted Observations) Papers
Dr. Quazi Muhammad Zaigham Zia, PhD 8 Student 2007-2011 (Flow Reconstructions), now Assistant Professor of Mathematics at COMSATS University Islamabad PhD
Dr. Boris Marx. PhD 7, 2007-2010, Postdoc 2011 (Magnetic Tomography and Data Assimilation) List, https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/209594.html Book
Dr. Corinna Burkard, PhD 6, 2007-2010 (Acoustic and Electromagnetic Inverse Problems) PDF
Dr. Martin Wannert, PhD 5, 2006-2009 (Magnetic Tomography) Book
Dr. Harald Heese, Postdoc 2006, NFG (Differentiability)
Dr. Eric Heinemeyer (PhD 4, 2004-2007, Postdoc 2007-8, Graduate School (Magnetic Tomography) Web/PDF
Dr. Fabrice Delbary, Postdoc 2006, BMBF (Electromagnetic Inverse Problems)
Dr. Jochen Schulz, PhD 3, 2001-2007 (Acoustic and Electromagnetic Inverse Problems) Web/PDF
Dr. Fahmi ben Hassen, Postdoc 2004-2005, NFG (Splitting Procedure and Electromagnetic Inverse Problems), now Associate Professor, IA University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Klaus Erhard, PhD 2, 2002-2005, NFG, (Point Source Method for Acoustic and Electromagnetic Inverse Problems) Web/PDF
Prof. Dr. Russell Luke, Postdoc 2001-2003, NFG (Inverse Problems), now Professor University of Göttingen
Dr. Lars Kühn, PhD 1, 2001-2005, NFG (Magnetic Tomography) Web/PDF

Roland Potthast Webhome

Table of Contents

Research Group

Current Group Structures and Members

PhDs Students (and some selected Master and Postdocs)