Monika Korte, Head of Working Group Geomagnetic field evolution in GFZ section Geomagnetism, has been elected Secretary General of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy  IAGA after her term as Vice President. The General Assembly of the IAGA took place within the framework of the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics  IUGG in Montreal. The previous Secretary General, Mioara Mandea of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales in Paris, France, was elected President of IAGA.

The IAGA is the worldwide association of scientists dealing with the magnetic and electrical properties of the Earth and other planets, the atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere, as well as the sun and its interaction with the System Earth. For example the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF), which is updated every five years and is used to determine magnetic field strength and compass declination for every location on earth, is being developed here with the participation of GFZ.

In addition to Monika Korte, who is mainly concerned with the reconstruction of the magnetic field of the geological past, other GFZ staff members contribute to the international research coordination within the IAGA: Ute Weckmann, head of the magnetotellurics working group in GFZ section Near-Surface Geophysics was elected head of the IAGA Division Electromagnetic Induction in the Earth and Planetary Bodies, Christina Arras, member of the GFZ section Space Geodetic Techniques now heads the IAGA Meteorological Effects in the Ionosphere working group and Jürgen Matzka, head of the working group Geomagnetic Observatories within Geomagnetism at GFZ, is the new head of the IAGA Geomagnetic Observatories working group as well. (he)