PhD Students

Mengyue Duan mengyue.duan@plus.ac.at

Mengyue Duan came to the University of Salzburg as a PhD candidate from Northwest University (China) with financial support from the OeAD through the Ernst Mach Scholarship. She is now a regular PhD student at the University of Salzburg where she is working on the evolution of landscapes on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and the Tienshan mountains. Her research in Salzburg focuses on the analysis of digital elevation models and the interpretation of topographic patterns that show both climatic and tectonic control. These works are supervised by Jörg Robl and Franz Neubauer.   Her research in Salzburg has already resulted in a peer-reviewed publication: Northeastward expansion of the Tibetan Plateau: Topographic evidence from the North Qinling Mts.–Weihe Graben Coupling system, Central China

Viktor Haunsberger viktor.haunsperger@plus.ac.at

Viktor studied mathematics and computer science and now works as a PhD student in the OEAW funded project Movemont  http://movemont.at/. As part of the project, he is developing a new method for computing stresses in mountain masifs under dead load. This interdisciplinary doctoral thesis is supervised by Jörg Robl and Andreas Schröder.

Fabian Dremel fabianchristopher.dremel@plus.ac.at

Fabian is employed on a 4-year PhD position at the University of Salzburg, which was created with Christoph v.Hagke's professorship. Fabian is investigating the topographic evolution and relief rejuvenation of Variscan mountains in Europe. He is working with morphometry, low-temperature thermochonometry and numerical modeling. Fabian is supervised by Christoph v.Hagke and Jörg Robl. Wetzlinger, K., Robl, J., Liebl, M., Dremel, F., Stüwe, K., & von Hagke, C. (2023). Old orogen -  young topography: Evidence for relief rejuvenation in the Bohemian Massif. Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences, 116(1), 17-38. https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2023.0002

Master Students

Johannes Köstner johannes.koestner@stud.plus.ac.at

Johannes has a profound education in morphology and is particularly interested in alpine natural hazards. His master thesis deals with new approaches for sensitivity analysis in the numerical description of rapid mass movements.

Hannes Dullnig hannes.dullnig@stud.plus.ac.at

Hannes is working on slow slope deformation as part of his master's thesis. He presents methods how this movement can be measured in different spatial scales and which possibilities there are to master this geotechnical challenge. He is working on the case study of a reservoir for artificial snowmaking.

Patricia Wagner patricia.wagner@stud.plus.ac.at

Patricia studies the influence of erodibility contrasts on the geometry of river networks. She applies morphometric analysis and numerical models. Her research area is the Chinese Loess Plateau (Orodos Block), where thick easily erodible loess deposits overlie erosion-resistant rock

Sara Stücker   sara.stuecker@stud.sbg.ac.at

Sara's master's thesis explores the potential of photogrammetry to determine the surface flow velocity of rivers. In doing so, she compares the computed velocity vectors of three torrents with conventionally measured flow velocities.

Bachelor Students

Alumni (Master and PhD)

Michaela Sichert

In her master thesis, Michaela conducted flood simulations on the Taugl River, a tributary of the Salzach River. The aim was to determine at which discharge (1) sediment is taken up and transported and (2) how often bedrock erosion occurs.  The results of this work are important in that climate warming is changing the magnitude and frequency of floods, and thus impacts on river landscapes can be expected.

Benedikt Pleyer

In his master's thesis, Bene attached a probe to the Taugl River that measures temperature, water level and conductivity three times an hour. In combination with discharge measurements (tracer method) and hydrochemical analyses (ICPMS), time series for discharge and dissolved load were calculated over a hydrological year.

Thomas Hauthaler

Thomas did his master thesis in the Ricola project. He performed a back analysis of the rockfall at Hintersee using the numerical model Gerris. Together with Anne-Laure he was able to publish his results in the journal Geomorphology. Argentin, A. L., Hauthaler, T., Liebl, M., Robl, J., Hergarten, S., Prasicek, G., Salcher, B., Hölbling, D., Pfalzner-Gibbon, C., Mandl, L., Maroschek, M., Abad, L., & Dabiri, Z. (2022). Influence of rheology on landslide-dammed lake impoundment and sediment trapping: Back-analysis of the Hintersee landslide dam. Geomorphology, 414, [108363]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2022.108363

Klaus Wetzlinger

Klaus has been studying the lastest topographic evolution in the Bohemian Massif. The results of his morphometric analyses show a bimodal landscape with steep rivers near the receiving streams separated by prominent knickpoints from shallow meandering rivers at higher elevations. Klaus konnte seine Ergebnisse in AJES veröffentlichen. Wetzlinger, K., Robl, J., Liebl, M., Dremel, F., Stüwe, K., & von Hagke, C. (2023). Old orogen -  young topography: Evidence for relief rejuvenation in the Bohemian Massif. Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences, 116(1), 17-38. https://doi.org/10.17738/ajes.2023.0002

Stefan Rass

Stefan determined a mass balance of the Rettenbach torrent that is a small torrential river near the city of Salzburg. He determined the dissolved load by integrating discharge-time series from a gauging station operated by the Torrent and Avalanche Control and analyzing the concentration of cations in water. Water was sampled at different discharge regimes. Chemical analyses are performed at the ICP-MS facility of the University of Graz.

Moritz Liebl

Moritz was working in the project ELEvATE, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the government of Salzburg. The project focused on the evolution of elevated low relief landscapes (plateaus) in active mountain ranges. The PhD project was supervised by Jörg Robl and Kurt Stüwe. Moritz studied geoscience (Bachelor´s and Master´s degree) at the University of Innsbruck. His research interests are active tectonics and dynamic sediment processes, which eventually control the evolution of alpine landscapes. Moritz successfully defended his doctoral thesis on 14.12.2022. Liebl, M., Robl, J., Hergarten, S., Egholm, D. L., & Stüwe, K. (2023). Modeling large‐scale landform evolution with a stream power law for glacial erosion (OpenLEM v37): benchmarking experiments against a more process-based description of ice flow (iSOSIA v3.4.3). Geosci. Model Dev., 16(4), 1315-1343. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1315-2023 Liebl, M., Robl, J., Egholm, D. L., Prasicek, G., Stüwe, K., Gradwohl, G., & Hergarten, S. (2021). Topographic signatures of progressive glacial landscape transformation. EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, 46(10), 1964-1980. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5139

Anne-Laure Argentin

Anne-Laure is a PhD student working on the Austrian Academy of Sciences funded RiCoLa (River Courses and Landslides) project (http://landslides-and-rivers.sbg.ac.at/). She is part of the Dynamite - Dynamic Mountain Environments (DME) doctorate school (http://dsp-dynamite.sbg.ac.at/). Anne-Laure graduated with a master's degree from the National Superior School of Geology in Nancy, France. Her PhD focuses on the detection and analysis of landslide-induced river course changes and lake formation. Her supervisors are Jörg Robl and Günther Prasicek (RiCoLa project leader). Moritz successfully defended her doctoral thesis on 22.11.2021. Argentin, A. L., Hauthaler, T., Liebl, M., Robl, J., Hergarten, S., Prasicek, G., Salcher, B., Hölbling, D., Pfalzner-Gibbon, C., Mandl, L., Maroschek, M., Abad, L., & Dabiri, Z. (2022). Influence of rheology on landslide-dammed lake impoundment and sediment trapping: Back-analysis of the Hintersee landslide dam. Geomorphology, 414, [108363]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2022.108363 Argentin, A. L., Robl, J., Prasicek, G., Hergarten, S., Hölbling, D., Abad, L., & Dabiri, Z. (2021). Controls on the formation and size of potential landslide dams and dammed lakes in the Austrian Alps. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 21(5), 1615-1637. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-1615-2021