Award Dr. Eva-Marie Metz awarded the Heraeus-Prize of the department for her dissertation
The Department of Physics and Astronomy has awarded Dr. Eva-Marie Metz the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Prize for the best dissertation of the 2025 academic year. The prize is funded by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation. Dr. Metz shares the award with Dr. Björn Hassfeld.
Dr. Metz completed her doctorate in the summer term of 2025 under the supervision of Dr. Sanam Vardag and Prof. Dr. André Butz at the Institute of Environmental Physics. In her dissertation, she investigated the terrestrial carbon cycle with a particular focus on the drylands of the Southern Hemisphere. To this end, she combined satellite and ground-based carbon dioxide measurements with models ranging from atmospheric inverse models to process-based vegetation models.Her work shows that microbial respiration triggers carbon dioxide pulses at the onset of rainfall following dry periods. These pulses are the primary drivers of year-to-year variations in the carbon dioxide budget of continental-scale dry regions, such as those in Australia.
