Current team

	Christian Wirth Head of the Research Group Christian Wirth is Max-Planck-Fellow and head of the research group. He is professor at the University of Leipzig and Director of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. His research is focussed on biodiversity and ecosystem function with emphasis on trees and forest ecosystems of the northern temperate and boreal regions. website phone: +49 341 97 38591 email: cwirth(at)uni-leipzig.de
	Jens Kattge Group Leader Jens Kattge is interested in the diversity of plant characteristics, how this is related to ecosystem function at local to global scales and how this is represented in large-scale ecosystem models. He coordinates the TRY initiative. website phone: +49 3641 57 6226 email: jkattge(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Susanne Tautenhahn Postdoctoral researcher Susanne joined the group in the context of the project 'Mobilization of trait data from digital image files by deep learning approaches'. website phone: +49 3641 57 6292 email: staut(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Talie Musavi PhD Student The PhD project of Talie Musavi is focussed on an improved understanding of vegetation constrains to ecosystem functioning by combined analysis of ecosystem fluxes (FLUXNET) and plant characteristics. Talie is jointly affiliated to the Department of Biogeochemical Integration at the MPI-BGC and co-supervised by Miguel Mahecha, leader of the research group 'Empirical Inference of the Earth System'. website phone: +49 3641 57 6296 email: tmusavi(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Julia Joswig PhD Student The PhD project of Julia Joswig is focussed on characterising and analysing the multidimensional spectrum of plant function at global scale. Julia is jointly affiliated to the Department of Biogeochemical Integration at the MPI-BGC and co-supervised by Miguel Mahecha, leader of the research group 'Empirical Inference of the Earth System'. website phone: +49 3641 57 6211 email: jjoswig(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	David Schöne Researcher David Schöne holds a bachelor in informatics. In the context of the projects GFBio and BExIS++ he is responsible for the further development and management of the BExIS database at the MPI-BGC. website phone: +49 3641 576 318 email: dblaa(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Gerhard Bönisch Scientific Data Manager Gerhard Bönisch is responsible for the development and management of the TRY database and website. In addition he is managing data for various scientific projects and laboratories. He is jointly affiliated to the Department of Biogeochemical Integration at the MPI-BGC. website phone: +49 3641 57 6277 email: boenisch(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Angela Günther Database Assistant Angela Günther works on the consolidation of traits and plant taxonomy in the context of the TRY database. Angela holds a Diploma in Biology. website phone: +49 3641 57 6210 email: Angela.Guenther(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Vamsi Krishna Kommineni Master student Vamsi studies Scientific Instrumentation at FH Jena and does his Master thesis in the group on evaluating global patterns of leaf size using machine learning approaches. website phone: +49 3641 57 xxxx email: vkommin(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de
	Gabriel Walther Research Assistant Gabriel Walther holds a 1st State Examination in Biology and Geography and currently helps us to improve the quality of metadata in the TRY database. website email: gwalth(at)bgc-jena.mpg.de

Former group members

• Ulrike Stahl PhD student in the group and PostDoc in the project 'Plant Trait Semantics', has left the research group to take a position at the Julius Kühn-Institut in Quedlinburg, Germany
• Daniel Marra has finished his PhD and is now a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department Biogeochemical Processes at the MPI-BGC. His working address is at the University of Leipzig, Germany
• Marie-Angélique Laporte, PostDoc in the project 'Plant Trait Semantics', has left the research group to take a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Bioversity International in Montpellier, France
• Franziska Schrodt, PostDoc in the project 'iTRY', has left the research group to take a Senior Lectureship at the University of Nottingham, UK
• Roland Moews, PhD in mathematics, has supported the group 2014 in the context of statistical evaluations of different methods to fill gaps in the TRY database.