New Professors

Prof. Dr.

Holger
Pagel

Soil Systems Modeling

Holger Pagel heads the Soil System Modeling group at the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Bonn and at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences of the Forschungszentrum Jülich (IGB-3/ Agrosphere). After completing a diploma in environmental technology at the Technical University of Berlin and a PhD in agricultural science at the University of Hohenheim, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hohenheim, where he led a junior research group on the microbial regulation of soil functions in agroecosystems.

The Soil System Modeling group is part of the DFG Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob. The team develops and uses process-based modeling as a powerful tool for a quantitative understanding of soil systems and for predicting biogeochemical processes. Their research contributes to a better understanding of the response of agroecosystems to climate change and other environmental threats such as pesticides, microplastics, and emerging pathogens. Core topics of the group are: (i) resilience of soil systems and agroecosystems, (ii) data fusion and knowledge integration for improved prediction of processes in soil, and (iii) digital soil twinning of soil systems by combining machine learning with process-based models for efficient prediction of biogeochemical processes.

Prof. Dr.

Denise
Fischer-Kreer

Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Denise Fischer-Kreer took over the new professorship for Entrepreneurial Behaviour in October 2023. Ms Fischer-Kreer studied industrial engineering at RWTH Aachen University and completed her doctorate in the field of sustainable entrepreneurship. She has been an Assistant Professor in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Group (WIN) at RWTH Aachen University since 2018. After her doctorate, she gained experience in business and industry in the strategy department of a leading specialty chemicals company. International research stays have taken her to the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India and Tsinghua University, China, among others.

In her research, Ms Fischer-Kreer focuses on mechanisms that enable entrepreneurs and managers to combine economic, social and ecological values in their companies. She is fascinated to explore how founders develop sustainable business models and how they can be change agents and drivers of innovation for the great challenges of our time. In practice-oriented courses, Ms Fischer-Kreer teaches students tools for developing their own business ideas and business models based on them. The courses offered by the Chair of Entrepreneurial Behaviour aim to empower students to develop a desire for entrepreneurship and to start their own business.

Prof. Dr.

Ana
Meijide Orive

Environment Modeling

Ana Meijide is the new Professor for Environment Modeling at the Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation of the University of Bonn since 15 September 2023. Ms. Meijide studied Environmental Sciences and received her PhD from the Technical University of Madrid (Spain). Ms. Meijide has been, since 2018, an Assistant Professor at the University of Göttingen. Previously she held postdoctoral positions at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (Italy), at the University of Göttingen and the University of Granada (Spain). The Environment Modeling group is part of the DFG Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob.

The main research focus of the professorship is on water, carbon and nitrogen cycling in agro-ecosystems, with an emphasis on trace gas fluxes and on assessing how management practices can promote climate-smart agriculture. Specifically, her research focuses on:
1) quantifying the fluxes between the soil-crop system and the atmosphere in agro-ecosystems and understanding the mechanisms responsible for such fluxes;
2) studying how agricultural management practices can help to mitigate and adapt to climate change and
3) studying the microclimatic effects of agriculture.

Prof. Dr.-Ing.

Susanne
Glaser

Space Geodesy

Susanne Glaser took over the professorship "Space Geodetic Techniques" at the Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation at the University of Bonn on September 1st, 2023. Ms. Glaser studied geodesy at the TUD Dresden University of Technology, where she also completed her doctorate in 2014. She then moved to the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, where she was head of the working group "Combination of Space Geodetic Techniques".

The main research areas of the professorship are the developments of space geodetic techniques, such as the next generation of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), as well as different combination strategies of the techniques. The space techniques are combined to determine so-called global terrestrial reference frames. They represent the metrological basis of almost all geodetic observations that enable the surveying of the Earth. Highly accurate surveying of the earth and its changes is of crucial importance, especially in times of climate change.

Prof. Dr.

Niklas
Möhring

Production Economics

Niklas Möhring heads the Production Economics Group at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Bonn since September 2023. After a double-degree Master's degree in Agricultural Economics at the Universities of Bonn and Wageningen, he completed his doctorate at ETH Zurich on the reduction of risks from the use of pesticides. His dissertation was honoured with the SIAF Award for the best dissertation in economics, as well as the Hans Vontobel Prize for an outstanding achievement in Agricultural Sciences. He was then working as a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich before receiving a postdoctoral fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation and a Marie Curie Fellowship from the EU to work at the Centre d'etudes biologiques de Chizé in France on the interface between Economics and Ecology. Finally, he worked as an assistant professor in the Business Economics Group at Wageningen University before being appointed to the University of Bonn.

The Production Economics Group strives to identify pathways towards more sustainable and resilient agricultural and food production systems – and to quantify the potential impacts and trade-offs of such transformations. In its research, the group combines cutting-edge quantitative methods for the analysis of human behavior and decision-making with a profound understanding of the economic, agronomic and ecological processes in agri-food systems. The group works for and with farmers, food-value-chain actors, policymakers and other societal actors to support their decision-making with evidence-based information. The group works together with researchers from different disciplines and countries.

Prof. Dr.

David
Wuepper

Land Economics

Since April, David Wuepper leads the group Land Economics in the Agricultural Economics department of the University of Bonn. Before coming to Bonn, he completed a Master at Christian Albrechts University of Kiel and a PhD at Technical University Munich, was a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich, and then professor of Quantitative Agricultural Economics at Humboldt University Berlin. His group Land Economics is part of the DFG Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob and for the coming 5 years it is funded by the ERC Starting Grant LAND-POLCY.

The main focus of the group is on land degradation and restoration. The research will focus on the one hand on global evaluations of institutional and policy changes (e.g. agri-environmental payments, changes in regulations). On the other hand, it will also analyze the potential of technological solutions. In this context, also research in behavioral economics will play a role.