GFZ German research centre for geo sciences

Dr. Hella Wittmann-Oelze

Group Leader
Dr. Hella Wittmann-Oelze
Building E, Room 228 (Büro)
Telegrafenberg
14473 Potsdam

Function and Responsibilities:

  • Supervisor for Lab for Cosmogenic Nuclides (Clean Lab 1000+)
  • Safety Officer for Section 3.3

Research Interests:

  • Earth surface processes and their quantification using cosmogenic nuclides
  • Development of methods for cosmogenic nuclides (meteoric and in situ-produced nuclides)
  • fluvial Geomorphology, Quaternary Geology

Career:

  • since 2009: "Post-Doc" Scientist at GFZ
  • since 2017: Scientist at GFZ
  • 1/2019: Sabbatical stay at Institute de Pysique de Globe de Paris/ Université Diderot

Education:

  • 1999-2004 Undergraduate Studies of Geosciences, Leibniz University of Hannover
  • 2004: "Diploma" in Geosciences, Leibniz University of Hannover
  • 2005-2008: PhD in Geosciences, Leibniz University of Hannover

Projects:

2023-2028
Collaboration with FU Berlin, F. von Blanckenburg, "Devendra"- Deciphering the Effect of Vegetation and Erosion on basalt and carbonate weathering by Novel Denudation Rate Approaches, funded through European Research Council (ERC). 

2023-2026
"Palavas"- Present and past weathering fluxes from tropical volcanic islands, DFG-funded bilateral project with ANR. Partners: A. Bernhardt (FU Berlin), Julien Bouchez (IPG Paris), Fabien Arnaud (EDYTEM Chambery).

2019-2023
Chinese Scholarship Council Fellowship for Chenyu Wang: Tracing riverine-marine geochemical exchange using the meteoric cosmogenic 10Be/9Be in the Amazon estuary, funded through the Chinese Scholarship Council.

2019-2021
DFG proposal “The coupled vegetation, weathering, erosion, and sediment-export response to climate change unraveled from novel proxies in Chilean marine sediment” (WI 3874/7-1)

2019-2021
Co-PI of DFG proposal “Environmental signal propagation and controls on terrigenous sediment export to the Indian Ocean” (WI 3874/6-1)

2018-2020
Collaboration with T. Schildgen, D. Roda-Boluda, GFZ Sektion 4.6: LandFlux: Quantifying landslide activity and contribution to sediment fluxes with cosmogenic radionuclides and grain-size distributions". 

2017-2020
Collaboration with T. Schildgen, M. D´Arcy, GFZ Sektion 4.6: "Timing of past glaciation at the Sierra de Aconquija, northwestern Argentina, and throughout the Central Andes."

2017-2020
Collaboration with D. Sachse, M. Repasch, GFZ Section 4.6: "Residence times of sediment from meteoric cosmogenic nuclides in a natural laboratory: The Rio Bermejo, Argentina"

2017-2018
Collaboration with O. Oncken, A. Douanla, GFZ Sektion 4.1: "Denudation rate gradient based on cosmogenic nuclides from the Swiss Plateau to the Aar Massif."

2016-2019
Chinese Scholarship Council Fellowship for Kai Deng, in collaboration with Shouye Yang Tongji University, China: “Meteoric cosmocgenic nuclides as novel erosion proxy in Taiwan”

2016-2017
Collaboration with N. Hovius, K. Cook, GFZ Section 4.6: "Erosion and climate driven of Gongg Shan on the eastern margin of the tibetan Plateau"

2015-2018
Collaboration with T. Schildgen, S. Tofelde, GFZ Sektion 4.6: "Climatic influence on erosion in the southern central Andes."

2015-2017
Collaboration with C. Spiegel, R. Rosenkranz, Bremen University: “Investigating Tectonism-Erosion-Climate-Couplings (iTECC Program)- Erosion in the Shillong Plateau using in situ 10Be” 

2014-2016 
Collaboration with P. Clift, T. Jonell, Louisiana State University, USA: “Controls on patterns of Erosion and Sediment Transport in a Monsoonal, Tectonically Quiescent Drainage, Song Gianh, Central Vietnam"

2014-2016
Collaboration with R. Thiede, S. Dey, University of Potsdam: "Sediment aggradation and incision in the NW Himalayas, India"

2014-2016 
Collaboration with G. Hoke, P. Val, Syracuse University, USA “Paleo-Erosion rates from cosmogenic 10Be in Argentina”

2013-2016
Collaboration with T. Schildgen, S. Savi, University of Potsdam: "Climatic modulation of sedimentary processes and late Quaternary landscape evolution: The Del Medio debris-flow fan, NW Argentina”

2013-2015
Collaboration with W. Rahaman (A. v. Humboldt Fellowship), National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research, Goa, India: “Sediment fluxes in the Ganga basin derived from meteoric cosmogenic nuclides”

2012-2015
Co-PI of EU-funded “CLIMAMAZON” (http://www.clim-amazon.eu/) project, Joint Brazilian-European research facility for climate and geodynamic research on the Amazon River basin sediments

2013-2014
DFG short proposal “Meteoric 10Be as a tracer of terrestrial denudation in marine sediments: A feasibility study” (WI 3874/2-1)

2013-2014
DFG short proposal “Patterns of erosion in the Western Alps and quantification of sediment reworking in the associated Po River foreland basin” (WI 3874/3-1)

2012-2016 
DFG proposal “Sediment production in large river basins throughout the Quaternary” (WI 3874/1-1)

Research Boards and Committees:

  • Reviewer for EPSL, GCA, Quaternary Geochronology, etc. and also NSF, SNF and DFG
  • since 2019: Associate Editor for journal "Geochronology" (EGU open access)
  • since 2024: Associate Editor for journal "Global and Earth Surface Processes Change" (Elsevier)

Awards:

  • 2013 Viktor-Moritz-Goldschmidt Price of the German Mineralogical Society
  • 2014 Award for "Excellence in Reviewing" for the Journal of "Quaternary Geochronology"
  • 2015 Award for "Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing" for the Journal "Earth and Planetary Science Letters"

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