Anna Michalak appointed as External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
Anna Michalak, Director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Professor in the Departments of Earth System Science and of Biology at Stanford University, has been appointed External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC). Her research interests are a perfect match to the Institute's research areas, and the continuing collaboration will provide the setting for a planned Max Planck Centre.
Prof. Michalak investigates greenhouse gas emissions from biogenic and anthropogenic sources on urban, regional and global scales. She also researches the influence of climate change on the water quality of freshwater ecosystems and coastal waters, for example through changing nutrient inputs. Her research approach is highly data-driven, further developing methods of statistical model-data fusion to obtain spatio-temporal information on greenhouse gas emissions from in-situ and remote sensing data. Her research results thereby also provide information that is relevant for policy makers.
Prof. Anna Michalak was a member of the Institute's Scientific Advisory Board from 2014 to 2016. She has been in good contact with the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) since this time. Among other things, she is chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the European Research Infrastructure Consortium “Integrated Carbon Observation System” (ICOS ERIC), whose atmospheric calibration laboratory ICOS-FCL is located at the MPI-BGC in Jena. Prof. Michalak is also a founding member of the Max Planck Centre MC³ 4 Earth with participation of the institutes in Stanford and Jena, which is currently being established.
Anna Michalak recently received her certificate and pin, "I am deeply honored to have been appointed as an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. I look forward to many years of continued fruitful scientific collaborations that will help to address the climate and sustainability challenges facing our planet."
The Managing Director at MPI-BGC and Head of the Department Biogeochemical Signals, Prof. Dr. Sönke Zaehle, is also looking forward to future scientific cooperation through the appointment of Prof. Michalak as an External Member. "With Anna Michalak, we are gaining an outstanding researcher who will contribute constructively to our research and provide new impulses."