08.11.2016: Yuri Shprits, Head of the research group Magnetospheric Physics at the GFZ section Earth’s Magnetic Field, was appointed Professor at the Institute of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Potsdam, on 24 October. Shprits was successfully recruited for the GFZ, starting his work on 1 March 2016, by the Helmholtz Recruiting Initiative.

His research deals with a better understanding of how solar activity affects the Earth space environment and with the hazardous effects of this activity on satellites and humans in space. For this aim he applies satellite observations and observations of ground stations on the Earth space environment and magnetosphere, physical modelling, and data assimilation techniques.

After finishing his PhD in 2005 at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, he worked there and at the Skoltech, Russia, as well as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. In 2012 he has been awarded by the US President Barack Obama with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on scientists in their early career. (ak)