After growing up close to the Bavarian alps in southern Germany, I started a career in industry and obtained an industrial mechanic diploma. This was quickly followed by bachelor degrees in mechanical engineering (B. Eng., TH Nuremberg), business administration and economics (B. Sc., University of Hagen) and geosciences (B. Sc., University of Erlangen-Nuremberg). Slowly realizing that it is not the prospect of a 9-5 industry career that is driving me, I started to follow other passions instead. Tempted by the thrill of adventure and the call of the great outdoors, the last unexplored wildernesses, I moved as far north as I could. Finding myself on Svalbard (Norway), I specialized on everything connected to all sorts of frozen water, mainly glaciers though. Studying at the University Centre of Svalbard gave me the opportunity to not only explore the academic, but also the geographical depths of the high Arctic. What followed were plenty of strenuous field trips and many exciting cave exploration missions to collect data for my numerical glacier modelling work that gained me a masters degree in mechanical engineering (M. Sc., University of Erlangen-Nuremberg). After almost three years in the high north, it was time to move south again to start a PhD in glaciology at the University of Oslo (Norway). In the following three years I had many great adventures around the world, plenty of trips to the polar regions, tons of data, academic excitements and struggles. All in order to finally finish my PhD in May 2021, a year ahead of my schedule, giving me additional time to pursue ambitious research projects. After my time at the University of Oslo I worked for a while as researcher at the Centre of Biorobotics at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, before starting a Marie Curie funded PostDoc at the University of Bergen in Norway.
But the isolated life of an academic job in front of a computer screen would not have been enough. Starting in 2016, I became active in the guiding industry. First shore based on Svalbard, and shortly after also ship-based on small expeditions vessels all over the polar and subpolar regions. Always full of passion for ice and the thrill of adventure.
