ROLAND ZECH
Climate change is one of the largest threats for humankind and other species. Reconstructing past climate and environmental changes helps improving our understanding of the controls and mechanisms involved and might even allow making reasonable predictions - "the past is the key to the future".
Quaternary Geology and Paleoclimatology
I am particularly interested in Quaternary terrestrial archives, such as glacial deposits, paleosols and lake sediments. The diversity of archives I am working with and the wide range of analytical tools, including 10Be surface exposure dating and compound-specific stable isotope analyses, reflect my educational background: I studied Geoecology at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. The respective research philosophy emphasizes inter-disciplinary approaches and cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Biography
I graduated in Bayreuth in 2003 with a diploma thesis (~MS) on "Landscape and Climate Reconstruction in the Pamir Mountains: Moraine and Landslide Dating in the Area of Lake Yashilkul using in-situ cosmogenic 10Be". As a visiting scientist and Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway, I then focused on "antitative climate reconstruction from lake sediments and environmental magnetism". In 2004, I started my PhD at the University of Bern, Switzerland, with the thesis title "Glacier and Climate Reconstruction in the Central Andes based on 10Be Surface Exposure Dating". However, I also enjoyed keeping in touch with the University of Bayreuth, and I joined and contributed to expeditions to Northeast Siberia, the Pamir Mountains, Nepal and Kilimanjaro. Having finished my PhD in 2006, I continued in Bern as research assistant. Among other things, I coordinated a second - and still ongoing - SNF project on surface exposure dating in the Central Andes. Since 2008, I am a SNF Postdoctoral Fellow. I started as visiting scientist at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Seattle, and am working on "Lipid Biomarkers and Compound-Specific Isotope Analyses in Paleosols" since February 2009 at the Brown University with Y. Huang and J. Russell.
Awards
- 2001 – 2006: Fellowship of the "Studienstiftung des dt. Volkes"
- 2000/01: Scholarship of the Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Bloomington, USA
- 2003/04: Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Bergen, Norway
- Since 2008: SNF Postdoctoral Fellowship
Research Interests
- Applying innovative, new analytical tools, such as surface exposure dating and compound-specific isotope analyses, in Quaternary archives, ranging from glacial deposits to paleosols and lake sediments …
- in order to reconstruct past climate and environmental changes and to better understand the controls and mechanisms involved on glacial-interglacial and millennial timescales.
