Kurzlebensläufe/CVs in a nutshell:
mini CV (dt+en)
1-page tabular CV (en)
1-Seite CV (dt), 1-page CV (en)

Standardfotos/standard photos (print quality):
G. Kirchengast (283 kB jpg)
WegCenter People Okt10 (most of them) (405 kB jpg)
WegCenter People Jun08 (most of them) (617 kB jpg)
WegCenter House (1194 kB jpg)

Scientific Curriculum Vitae

Root data in brief:

Straight to: Academic Education| Professional Development| Research| Teaching and Supervision| Management and Administration| Participation in International Scientific Bodies| Services to the International Scientific Community and Industry

Academic Education:

University of Graz, Austria (Studies 1984-1991).

• 1st diploma (B.Sc. level) in Physic, Meteorology, and Geophysics, 1986.
• 2nd diploma (M.Sc. degree, with highest honors) in Geophysics, 1988
• Dr.rer.nat (Ph.D. degree, with highest honors) in the Natural Sciences/Geophysics, 1992.
• 2nd diploma (M.Sc. level, with highest honors) in Physics, 1995.

Professional Development:

(status of this subsection still Sept. 2003; updates follow)

• Award of a Post-doc fellowship of the German Max-Planck society in December 1991 (for up to 2 years, nominal start May 1992); for upper atmosphere research at the MPI for Aeronomy, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany (research topic "Study of the interaction of atmospheric gravity waves with the ionosphere by high-resolution ionosphere-thermosphere modeling").
• Selected for an assistant professorship ("Universitätsassistent") at the Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Graz (predecessor of the current Institute for Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Meteorology/University of Graz, IGAM/UG), in January 1992. - Started in March 1992.
• Post-doc fellow at the MPI for Aeronomy, Germany, during academic summers 1992/93/94, in order to best exploit the awarded fellowship given the constraints of the academic year. (Remark on summers 1995/96/97: deliberately not used for external research stays but, nevertheless, heavily filled with "research" experience in an entirely different field: sharing babycare.)
• Reception of the venia docendi ("Lehrbefugnis/Habilitation") for the field of Geophysics in May 1997.
• Appointed associate professor ("Ao.Universitätsprofessor") at the Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Graz, in October 1997.
• Awarded with the "START Preis 1998", in July 1998. ("START" and "Wittgenstein" prizes, the prize-winners being selected by an esteemed international START/Wittgenstein-Jury after very stringent peer review, are Austria´s most prestigeous and best endowed discretionary research fund awards.)
• Visiting Scientist at the MPI for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, during academic summer 1998; for collaborative atmosphere and climate research (research topic "The potential of spaceborne GNSS limb sounding for climate monitoring and atmospheric change analysis").
• Awarded with the "Josef-Krainer Würdigungspreis 1999", in March 1999. ("For exceptional performance in the field of Meteorology and Geophysics"; the prize-winners are selected among scholars from all disciplines by an interdisciplinary "Josef Krainer Gedenkwerk"-Jury after peer review.)
• Visiting Scientist at UCAR/NCAR (Univ. Corporation/National Center for Atmospheric Research), Boulder, CO, U.S.A., during academic summer 1999; for collaborative atmospheric remote sensing research (research topic "Advancing radio occultation sounding in the troposphere via realistic high-resolution simulations").
• Visiting Scientist at the MPI for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, during academic summer 2000; for collaborative atmosphere and climate research (research topic "Observing system simulation experiment for climate change monitoring by GNSS occultation sensors").
• Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A., during academic summer 2001; for collaborative atmosphere and climate research (research topic "Occultation data in atmosphere and climate physics: Advancing data analysis and future satellite missions").
• Lead Investigator, together with Per Hoeg (Denmark), of the Atmosphere and Climate Explorer (ACE+) satellite mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), since May 2002. (ACE+ was selected by ESA, from among 25 proposed missions after an extremely rigorous scientific and technical peer review procedure, as its top priority future Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission.)
• Visiting Scientist at the Div. for Kinematics & Dynamics of the Earth, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, during academic summer 2002; for collaborative atmosphere and climate research (research topic "Observing climate change based on the CHAMP/GPS occultation sensor: Preparations for a prototype global climate monitoring system").
• Full professor ("Universitätsprofessor") at the University of Graz Geophysics chair at IGAM/UG (Alfred Wegener's Chair, originally held by Alfred Wegener 1924-1930), since September 2003. (This appointment was preceded by a highly selective candidate search and down-selection process since May 2001, involving several stages of stringent peer review.)

Research:

• Since 1996 research focus on atmospheric remote sensing from space and exploitation for climate research. Foundation (1996) and direction of the Atmospheric Remote Sensing and Climate System (ARSCliSys) Research Group (about 12 scientists), later foundation (2003-2004) and direction (since 2005) of the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change (WEGC) including ARSCliSys and other partner research groups (about 40 scientists).
  Atmospheric remote sensing interests include occultation methods (like GNSS radio occultation and LEO-LEO occultation) and other coherent-signal and spectroradiometric methods (in infrared and microwave), with the main aim to conceive and advance methods and algorithms and to provide optimal climate utility of such data. Since 2005 also complementary interests in ground-based methods with very high resolution for climate applications (e.g., realization of the WegenerNet climate station network).
  Climate interests include analysis of atmospheric change, validation and improvement of climate modeling by accurate observational constraints (climate benchmark data), climate change detection and attribution, integrated climate analysis from global to local scale, quantitative coupling of climate change, impacts, vulnerability, adaptation, and mitigation.
  Methodological interests behind include advanced physical and statistical modeling, including forward, adjoint, and inverse modeling as well as data assimilation, for simulations and optimal estimation in complex systems (e.g., parts of the climate-socio-economic system).
  (See also the lists of written and oral publications from about 1996 onwards.)

• Before 1996 (since 1988, with focus until 1995) research focus was on the physics of the upper atmosphere including as main topical areas ionosphere-thermosphere interactions, gravity waves and their ionospheric signatures, high-resolution ionospheric weather modeling, 3D modeling of the ionosphere-plasmasphere system, and ionospheric tomography.
  (See also the lists of written and oral publications until about 1996.)

Teaching and Supervision:

• Development and delivery of lectures for undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students of geophysics, meteorology, physics, and environmental system sciences (topics included: Introduction ot meteorology, Physics of climate - System Earth and climate change, Remote sensing of the atmospheric environment and the climate, Radiation and energy balance of the atmosphere, Transport equations of planetary atmospheres, Methods of modeling and simulation, Methods of data analysis and inversion, Introduction to systems science).
  Emphasis on advancing IGAM/IP&WEGC UniGraz´s teaching in the fields of (atmospheric) remote sensing, climate physics and environmental sciences, data analysis and modeling, and (climate) system science.
  (See the list of·teaching activities for more details.)

• Supervision of Ph.D. students and M.Sc. students working on a variety of geophysical-meteorological-climatological topics (more than 25 Ph.D. students and 30 M.Sc. students were given guidance to completion since 1992; many of them in recent years with co-supervision support by assistant professors or senior postdocs). Provision and supervision of seminars and privatissima in the fields of geophysics and meteorology, including IGAM/IP UniGraz´s main seminar unitl 2007 ("Geophysikalisches Seminar") and successor seminars, including at WEGC UniGraz.
  (See the list of supervision activities for more details.)

Management and Administration:

• Director of the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change (WEGC) at UniGraz (about 50 staff) and of its Climate and Environmental Change Research and Monitoring (CCR) Programme (about 25 scientists); also Head of the Atmospheric Remote Sensing and Climate System (ARSCliSys) Research Group of WEGC&IGAM/IP UniGraz (about 12 scientists) as well as Head of the Geophysics & Meteorology branch of the IGAM/IP UniGraz.

• At the University level, repeatedly Chair or Member of bodies such as study curricula, professor search, and habilitation committees; also Delegate of the University to external bodies such as the Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA) partnership of national climate science institutions and the Austrian IIASA Commission.

• Leader and Manager of many international and national research programmes and projects or of the University of Graz participation in them (with funds from ESA, EU, AT Space Applications Programme, Austrian Science Fund, etc).

Participation in International Scientific Bodies:

(status of this subsection still Sept. 2003; updates follow)

• Member of the "Atmosphere and Climate Explorer Mission Advisory Group" (ACE+ MAG) of ESA. (Scientific advisory body for the ESA ACE+ satellite mission, which was recently selected as the top-priority future ESA Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission.)
• Member of the joint "GPS/GLONASS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding Science Advisory Group" (GRAS-SAG) of ESA and EUMETSAT. (Scientific advisory body for GRAS-related ESA/EUMETSAT satellite missions.)
• Member (Principal Investigator, Lead Co-Investigator, or Co-Investigator) of GPS/MET, OERSTED/GPS, CHAMP/GPS, ENVISAT/GOMOS&MIPAS, and MARSExpress/MaRS Science Project Teams. (Teams analyzing and exploiting scientific measurement data from these satellite missions/sensors.)
• Member of the "International ATOVS Working Group" (ITWG) of the IAMAP (Int´l Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics). (Body fostering cooperation in the exploitation of data from operational spaceborne meteorological sounders.)
• Associate of the International "IASI Sounding Science Working Group" (ISSWG). (Body coordinating preparation of data exploitation for the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, IASI, to fly aboard the future European METOP weather&climate satellites.)
• Member of the "Joint Working Group on Ionosphere and Atmosphere Remote Sensing using Global Positioning Systems" of the URSI (Int´l Union of Radio Science).
• Member of the "Special Study Group (SSG) on Use of GPS Positioning for Atmospheric Monitoring" of the IAG (Int´l Association of Geodesy).
• Member of the "Special Study Group (SSG) on Spaceborne GNS Atmosphere Sounding" of the IAG (Int´l Association of Geodesy).
• Member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the European Geophysical Society (EGS), the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Meteorologie (ÖGM), and the Österreichische Physikalische

Past Memberships:

• Member (and Speaker) of the "Water vapor And Temperature in the Troposphere and Stratosphere Mission Science Preparatory Group" (WATS-SPG) of ESA. (Scientific advisory body for preparing and advising on the science of the candidate ESA Earth Explorer Core Mission WATS.) [2001]
• Member of the "GRAS Satellite Application Facility Requirements and Architectural Design Review Board" of EUMETSAT. (Body to review progress and status of the European GRAS Satellite Application Facility Project.) [2000]
• Member of the "Atmospheric Profiling Mission Working Group" (APM WG) of ESA. (Scientific preparatory and advisory body for the ESA APM satellite mission, a candidate ESA Earth Explorer Core Mission.) [1995–1996]

Services to the International Scientific Community and Industry:

(status of this subsection still Sept. 2003; updates follow)

• Active participation in a series of international scientific bodies as listed in the subsection above, providing scientific advice, evaluation, vision, co-operativeness, leadership and similar services as applicable in the specific context.

• Service as Reviewer for Nature and most leading international peer-reviewed journals in the Geophysics field (Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Geophysical Research, Annales Geophysicae, Radio Science, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, etc). Recent offers to serve at editorial level had to be declined for the time being, given the current high workload with other activities.

• Organization of scientific sessions within international meetings of relevant scientific societies (e.g., within the General Assemblies of the European Geosciences Union). Currently leading, as main convener (co-conveners: L. Bengtsson and S. Leroy), the organization of the session "Observing climate change and variability from space: achievements and challenges" within the Climate Sciences Programme of the upcoming EGU General Assembly in April 2004 in Nice, France. Co-organization of workshops (e.g., recently of an ESA International Seminar on Radio Occultations in Noordwijk, Netherlands).

• Leadership, as Workshop Chair, of the organization of the 1st International Workshop on Occultations for Probing Atmosphere and Climate (OPAC-1), which took place with great success in September 2002 in Graz, Austria. Main Editor of the Springer Proceedings Book "Occultations for Probing Atmosphere and Climate" currently prepared, based on peer-reviewed contributions, as a lasting result of the OPAC-1 workshop. The follow-on workshop OPAC-2 is scheduled to be hosted again in Graz in September 2004.

• Scientific advisory and consultancy services to various (aerospace) industry partners collaborating on the technical side in some international scientific programmes or projects important in the context of ARSCliSys Research Group activities.

• Advisory services to the users of the EGOPS® software in science and industry, more than twenty groups worldwide, as Director of the International EGOPS Maintenance Center (IEMC) at IGAM/UG. (EGOPS - End-to-end GNSS/Generic Occultation Performance Simulator - is a scientific-technical software package, the development of which was initiated in 1996 and led since then.)

Publications

• Written Scientific Publications

• Oral Scientific Publications

Teaching & Supervision

• Teaching Activities

• Supervision Activities

Personal Interests

Briefly some selected main items...

• Art of Living: a&g life, family life, wild life, christian life
  ("Am Ende des Weges wird man mich fragen: - Hast du gelebt? Hast du geliebt? Und ich werde, ohne etwas zu sagen, das Herz auftun, voll von Namen.", aus El tiempo y la aspera/Die Zeit und die Hoffnung von Pedro Casaldaliga)

• Art of Science: thinking, reading, soaring, focusing, hypothesizing, analyzing, synthesizing, discussing, working (hard if required), solving problems, celebrating summits

• Empower People: encourage, strengthen, coach, mentor, unchain, protect, support, let develop, let creativity flow, let stay, let go

• Politics: social and environmental policy, peace policy, education, science, and technology policy, power and justice issues, political decision making

• Sports: being active with the teens, walking, biking, hiking, skiing, swimming

• Recreation: sleeping (not necessarily alone), dreaming, relaxed being, relaxed doing ("Don't worry, be happy.")

Position

• Professor of Geophysics (Alfred Wegener's Chair) at the University of Graz (UniGraz)

• Director of the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University of Graz (WEGC UniGraz)

• Head of Geophysics&Meteorology at the Institute for Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Meteorology/Institute of Physics at UniGraz (IGAM/IP UniGraz)

• Programme director of the Climate and Environmental Change Research and Monitoring (CCR) Programme at WEGC UniGraz

• Head of the·Atmospheric Remote Sensing and Climate System (ARSCliSys) Research Group of WEGC&IGAM/IP UniGraz

Contact