On the first of March Cornelia Schmidt-Hattenberger became provisional Head of the GFZ section Geological Storage. She succeeds Axel Liebscher, who was Head of the section since 2016.

Cornelia Schmidt-Hattenberger joined the GFZ in 1993. Her research focus in on CO2 storage in deep-seated sandstone layers soaked with salt water. Furthermore, she works on geoelectrical methods such as electrical resistance tomography, which provide cross-sectional views of the conductivity distribution and with the development of multi-parameter monitoring concepts.Cornelia Schmidt-Hattenberger studied physics at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.

Axel Liebscher joined the GFZ in 2000, where he became scientific coordinator of the Ketzin pilot site in 2008. Since 2012, he was head of the Centre for Geological Storage CGS at GFZ, which was transferred to the Geological Storage Section in 2016. His research focus was mainly the geological storage of energy and matter and the use of subsurface reservoirs.

Reinhard Hüttl, scientific executive director and chairman of the executive board, thanked Axel Liebscher for his work: "Axel Liebscher played a decisive role in ensuring that our research into the safe storage of carbon dioxide at the pilot site Ketzin was successfully completed." It is a great pity for the GFZ to lose him, "but we will certainly find further opportunities for cooperation in the context of scientific monitoring for the repository search", added Hüttl. (ks)