Matthias Braun

Prof. Dr. Matthias Braun

Department of Geography
Professur für Geographie (Fernerkundung und GIS) (Prof. Dr. Braun)

Room: Room 02.127
Wetterkreuz 15
91058 Erlangen

Contact hours

on appointment


Curriculum Vitae

seit 2022 — Head Prüfungsausschuss B.Sc./M.Sc. Physical Geography as well as BA/MA Cultural Geography

since 2022 — Spokesperson of the International Doctoral Program “Measuring and Modelling Mountain Glaciers in a Changing Climate” within the Elitenetzwerk Bayern funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science & Arts

2015-2017 — Speacker Department Geographie & Geowissenschaften

2014-2016 — Head of Institut für Geographie, 2013/14 and 2016/17 co-head of insitute

since 2012 — Secretary German National Committee on SCAR /IASC, member of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group Physical Sciences

since 09/2011 — Professor for Physische Geographie (Remote sensing & GIS) at the Institut für Geographie, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

2010-2011 — Associate Professor of Geophysics at the Geophysical Institute and Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA

since 2010 — Member of the TanDEM-X and Tandem-L Science Teams

2009 — Science award for Physical Geography of the Prof. Dr. Frithjof Voss Stiftung für Geographie

2009 — Habilitation at the Faculty of Math and Natural Sciences of the Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

2006 — DAAD Short-term lectureship at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya

2004-2013 — Chairman of the Special Interest Group on Land Use of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL)

2001-2010 — Scientific coordinator of the Center for remote sensing of Land Surfaces at the University of Bonn

2001 — Doctor of natural sciences at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Freiburg University

1990-1997 — Study of Hydrology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i Br.

Since 1994/95 — Head and participant of several Antarctic and Arctic expeditions as well as research expeditions in Alaska, South America, West- & East Africa, Himalaya & Karakoram

Publications

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Book chapters and Proceedings:

  • Arigony-Neto, J., Skvarca, P., Marinsek, S., Braun, M., Humbert, A., Mendes Júnior, C.W., Jaña, R. (2013): Chapter 33: Monitoring glacier changes on the Antarctic Peninsula. In: Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, J.S. Kargel, G.J. Leonard, M.P. Bishop, A. Kääb, and B. Raup (Editors), Praxis-Springer (Publishers), Heidelberg, ISBN: 978-3-540-79817-0.
  • Loso, M.G., Goodwin, K., Braun, M. (2013): Glacial Transport of Human Waste and Survival of Fecal Bacteria on Mt. McKinley’s Kahiltna Glacier, Denali National Park, Alaska. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/AKR/NRTR—2013/784. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.
  • Hecheltjen, A., Waske, B., Thonfeld, F., Braun, M., Menz., G. (2010): Support vector machines for multitemporal and multisensor change detection in a mining area. Proceedings of the ESA Living Planet Symposium, Bergen, June 28 to July 02, 2010.
  • Schneider, C., Scherer, D., Braun, M., Moeller, M., Kaesmacher, O., Finkelnburg, R. (2010): Climate variability and Glacier response at Vestfonna – a case study of Arctic climate and glacier dynamics at Nordaustlandet (Svalbard) in recent years. Nova Acta Leopoldina NF 112(384), 145-151.
  • Braun, M. (ed.) (2007): Proceedings of the Second Workshop of the EARSeL Special Interest Group on Land Use and Land Cover. Application and Development. Bonn, 28-30 September 2006. http://www.zfl.uni-bonn.de/earsel/ws2006_bn.html, ISBN-13 978-3-00-020518-7.
  • Heinzel, V., Braun, M. & Menz, G. (2007): Remote sensing data assimilation for regional crop growth modelling. Proc. of the IGARSS’07 Symposium, Barcelona.
  • Waske, B., Heinzel, V., Braun, M. & Menz, G. (2007): Random forests for classifying multi-temporal SAR data. Proc. of the ESA ENVISAT Symposium 2007, Montreux, Switzerland.
  • Heinzel, V., Waske, B., Braun, M. & Menz, G. (2007): Estimation of crop yield by the combined use of optical and microwave remote sensing time series. Proc. of the ESA ENVISAT Symposium 2007, Montreux, Switzerland.
  • Moll, A. & Braun, M. (2006): Glacier velocities on King George Island (Antarctica) by DInSAR. Proceedings of IGARSS’06 Symposium, Denver, 2006.
  • Moll, A., Braun, M. & Lluberas, A. (2006): Determination of glacier velocities on King George Island (Antarctica) by DInSAR. Proceedings of the ESA FRINGE’06 Workshop, Frascati.
  • Waske, B., Schiefer, S. & Braun, M. (2006): Random feature selection for decision tree classification of multi-temporal SAR data. Proceedings of IGARSS’06 Symposium, Denver, 2006.
  • Waske, B., Heinzel, V., Braun, M. & Menz, G. (2005): Object-based speckle filtering using multisensoral remote sensing data. Proceedings SPIE Remote Sensing Europe, 19-22 September 2005, Bruges, Belgium, Vol. 5980, pp.89-98.
  • Heinzel, V., Waske, W., Braun, M. & Menz (2005): The potential of multitemporal and multisensoral remote sensing data for the extraction of biophysical parameters of wheat. Proceedings SPIE Remote Sensing Europe, 19-22 September 2005, Bruges, Belgium, Vol. 5976, pp. 404-412.
  • Braun, M. & Herold, M. (2003): Mapping imperviousness using linear spectral unmixing of ASTER data in the Cologne-Bonn region (Germany). SPIE – Remote Sensing Europe, 8-12 September 2003, Almari Hotel, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Schöttker, B., Over, M., Braun, M., Siegmund, A. & Menz, G. (2003): State-wide land use change detection using remote change. SPIE – Remote Sensing Europe, 8-12 September 2003, Almari Hotel, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Weissteiner, C.J., Braun, M. & Kühbauch, W. (2003): Regional Yield Forecasts of Maltic Barley by Remote Sensing Data and Ancillary Data. SPIE – Remote Sensing Europe, 8-12 September 2003, Almari Hotel, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Over, M., Schöttker, B., Braun, M. & Menz, G. (2003): A comparison of various relative radiometric correction approaches for LANDSAT imagery. Proceedings of the IGARRS Symposium 2003, Toulouse.
  • Schöttger, B., Over, M., Braun, M., Siegmund, A. & Menz, G. (2003): Remote Sensing as a tool to visualise land use change and to support environmental education. A case study of North Rhine Westphalia (Germany) in the context of the local Agenda21 process. Proceedings of the EARSeL Symposium Gent 2003.
  • Thamm, H.-P. & Braun, M. (2003): Evaluation of GRFM JERS-1 SAR imagery for coarse-scale land cover classification in Benin (West Africa). Proceedings of the 2nd EAESeL SIG Workshop Remote Sensing in Developing Countries. Bonn, Sept. 2002.
  • Braun, M. & Goßmann, H. (2002): Glacial changes in the area of Admiralty Bay and Potter Cove, King George Island, Antarctica. In: Beyer, M. & Boelter M. (ed.): GeoEcology of Terrestrial Antarctic Oases, Springer Verlag, 75-89.

Teaching

Information on the structure and modular concept of our teaching offer in the area of remote sensing and GIS can be found under the teaching section of this website. My current classes taught can be found in UnivIS.

Internships and studying abroad:

We maintain very close contacts to several research institutions nationally and internationally and have contact to companies via our alumni. We are happy to support you when searching for specific internship possibilities, in particular abroad,. please contact us on this specifically and provide information on thematic and methodological area of interest, proposed period, previous classes

 

Research

My current research focus is on remote sensing of the cryosphere with specific interest in changes of glaciers and ice sheets. In addition I can rely on a vast experience of land use cover change studies from my previous work.The activities of my group cover method development to derive cryosphere variables as well as large-scale and automated processing of time series and big data volumes. We integrate spaceborne, airborne and field observations from various platforms and instruments. As such field campaign are often a central part of our activities but not necessarily part of all projects. More information on our activities and running projects can be found on our group site.

Thesis work and doctoral studies

Theses works (Bachelor, Master, Zulassungsarbeiten):

We offer the possibility to carry out thesis work related to our research activities. Remote sensing and GIS are central tools for the analysis performed, but also literature topics for Bachelor and Zulassungsarbeiten are possible. Empirical works are mostly linked to our research activities and we aim at students to generate data sets that will and can be subsequently used in our projects. For master theses we often look for candidates performing precursor studies, implementing and testing new approaches. For latter, basic programming skills as we teach them in our classes are helpful.

For a list of current theses topics please contact me or my group staff Thorsten Seehaus, Johannes Fürst or Sebastian Feick.

List of running and competed doctoral projects:

  • Antonia Warnstedt (running)
  • Moritz Koch (running)
  • Katrina Bartek (running)
  • Philipp Malz (running)
  • Jusé Luis Bueso Bello, DLR (running)
  • Anna Wendleder, DLR (running)
  • Dr. Christian Sommer (2022)
  • Dr. David Farias Barahona (2021)
  • Dr. Stefan Lippl-Seifert (2020)
  • Dr. Peter Friedl (2019)
  • Dr. Saurabh Vijay (2017)
  • Dr. Sandra Skowronek (2017)
  • Dr. Melanie Rankl (2016)
  • Dr. Thorsten Seehaus (2016)
  • Dr. Sebastian Feick (2013)