Martin Schultz Appointed Professor at the University of Cologne

Dr. Martin Schultz joined the JSC in 2017 to build up the new research group on Earth System Data Exploration after a successful career in Earth System Modelling at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, and the IEK-8 at Forschungszentrum Jülich. In 2018 he won the ERC Advanced Grant “IntelliAQ” to explore novel machine learning methods for the prediction and analysis of air quality data, and he received funding from BMBF and BMU for the projects “DeepRain” and “KI:STE”, respectively. He also initiated the Helmholtz Incubator project “Pilot Lab Exascale Earth System Modelling”, which he coordinated until 2022.

Since 2021, Martin develops a large-scale foundation model for atmospheric dynamics together with partners from the University of Magdeburg, ECMWF and CERN, and he recently got awarded one of the four pilot projects of the Helmholtz Foundation Model Initiative, where he will extend the scope of the atmospheric model from weather to climate time scales. Besides his work on the frontiers of deep learning for earth system research, Martin is also very interested in scalable, open and FAIR data infrastructures. He and his group developed a terabyte-scale database of global air quality observations from surface sites, which sets new standards in terms of metadata completeness and analysis capabilities via web services. Martin co-leads the division Large Scale Data Science at JSC, and he is one of the directors of CESOC, a network bringing together earth system science and computer science in Jülich, Cologne, and Bonn.

In April 2024, Martin was appointed professor of Computational Earth System Science at the University of Cologne’s Computer Science department, within the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. He will retain his position at JSC according to the Jülich Model. The joint position will strengthen the existing collaborations with the University of Cologne, foster linkages between computer science and earth system science in the region, and create new opportunities for joint research, including the supervision of PhD and master students, who will thus get an opportunity to access and exploit JSC’s unique computing capabilities.

Congratulations, Martin – we wish you great success with your new tasks!