Curriculum Vitae

Download my short 2-page CV and publication list

About me

I am an Associate Professor at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego. I am also an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Geophysics, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich, Germany. 

My research interests include:

  • Earthquake physics.

Modeling and imaging of earthquake source dynamics, rock friction, structure and rheology of crustal fault zones

  • Fracture mechanics 

Analytical description of crack propagation, frictional failure and atomistic modeling

  • Seismic wave propagation

High frequency wave fields, strong ground motions and seismic hazard analysis

  • Earthquake cycles and tsunami generation

Multidisciplinary approaches of earthquake scenario simulations in conjunction with geodynamic and tsunami modeling

  • Numerical methods

Innovative algorithms for wave propagation and dynamic earthquake rupture

  • High Performance Computing

Scalable and flexible software solutions for forward models and uncertainty quantification on modern High Performance Computing infrastructure

As a PostDoc I focused on the development and application of the software package SeisSol for the simulation of realistic strong ground motions as well as for fundamental earthquake physics. SeisSol recently reached performance beyond the “magical” one petaflop/s mark. SeisSol is a high-order accurate Discontinuous Galerkin method implemented on unstructured meshes to solve forward wave propagation problems in realistic media with complex geometry.

I conducted my PhD Studies at the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich, Switzerland with Jean-Paul Ampuero (Caltech, USA), P. Martin Mai (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) and Luis Dalguer and Domenico Giardini (ETH). My main interest was earthquake source physics and fracture mechanics: In which ways will a dynamic earthquake rupture interact with damage surrounding a fault zone?

Previously, my field of research was theoretical material science.  I worked on atomistic simulations of solid-phase epitaxial regrowth of amorphous germanium at the Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research at the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany, and was a student mentee at the Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC) Dresden.

Education

  • 2022, Habilitation, LMU Munich, Germany
  • 2013, Dr. Sci. (PhD), Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Advisors: J.-P. Ampuero (Caltech), P.M. Mai (KAUST), L.-A. Dalguer & D. Giardini (ETH Zurich)
  • 2008, Diplom (MSc), Physics, Technical University Dresden, Germany
  • 2006, Certificate of Proficiency, Geophysics, Geology, University of Auckland, New Zealand
  • 2004, Vordiplom (BSc), Physics, Technical University Dresden, Germany
  • 2002, Abitur (1.0), J.-A.-Hülße-Gymnasium Dresden

Awards

  • 2025, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell Prize awarded at SC25 for our paper “Real-Time Bayesian Inference at Extreme Scale: A Digital Twin for Tsunami Early Warning Applied to the Cascadia Subduction Zone”
  • 2025, Hyperion Research 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award for “Exploring Real-Time Tsunami Warning System on World’s Fastest Supercomputer” 
  • 2025, HPCwire Reader’s Choice Award for “Best Use of HPC in Physical Sciences” 
  • 2024-2026, Thomas and Evelyn Page Chancellor’s Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Geosciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • 2023, James B. Macelwane Medal & AGU Fellow, American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • 2022, C.F. Gauss Lecturer, German Geophysical Society (DGG)
  • 2022, Humboldt Foundation, Japanese-American-German Frontiers Science Symposium, Invited Participant
  • 2020, Charles F. Richter Early Career Award, Seismological Society of America (SSA)
  • 2020, Ada Lovelace Award for HPC, Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE)
  • 2019, ERC Starting Grant Awardee, European Research Commission (ERC)
  • 2018, Appointment to the Center of Advanced Studies, Young Center, LMU Munich
  • 2018 & 2022, Student Cluster Competition Reproducibility Challenge, SC Conference, Uphoff et al., 2017 and Krenz
    et al., 2022 were selected for real-time, non-stop, 48-hour undergraduate student competitions
  • 2017, Best Paper Award, SC Conference, prestigious prize for application driven HPC, for Uphoff et al., 2017
  • 2014, PRACE Award, International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), for Breuer et al., 2014
  • 2014, Best Poster Awards & Best Visualization Award, PASC Meeting, Zurich & Volkswagen Foundation Extreme Events Meeting, Hannover
  • 2012, Outstanding Student Paper Award, AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA
  • 2012 & 2013, Travel Grants, ECGS Workshop, Luxembourg; EMFCSC Workshop, Erice, Italy
  • 2008, Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation Travel Grant, German Physical Society
  • 2007, ELISA Mentoring Scholarship, TU Dresden Excellency of Women in Science Promotion Program
  • 2006, DAAD Study Abroad Scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service, University of Auckland, NZ

Service

  • Scientific Editing: Since 2018, Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) : Solid Earth, Associate Editor. Since 2020, Seismica Editor; 2021, Guest Editor, Frontiers special issue "High-Performance Computing in  Solid Earth Geohazards: Progresses, Achievements and Challenges for a Safer World", all women Editors
  • European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2022–27 Elected President Seismology Division
  • American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2024-27, AGU Bowie Medal Committee; 2021, Fall Meeting Program Commit-
    tee    , Seismology Division.
  • Statewide California Earthquake Center (SCEC), 2024–now Chair Proposal Review Committee, Co-Chair Science Steering Committee & ExCom Member; 2022–24 Co-Lead Community Engagement MA3; 2021–22 Research Computing and CyberInfrastructure Committee 
  • Subduction Zones in 4 Dimensions (SZ4D), 2022–now Science Steering Committee Member,  Co-Chair Modeling Collaboratory for Subduction, 2022-25 Operations Planning Committee Member; 2020–22 Faulting and Earthquake Cycle Working Group member
  • Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG), 2020–now, Executive Committee Member, 2021–23 Chair of EC

Recent Invited Talks 

(listed since 09/2019)

2026

  • 06/2026 SCEC UNREST workshop, Pismo Beach, CA, USA
  • 06/2026 European Seminar on Computing – ESCO 2026, Keynote, Pilsen, Czech Republic (remote)
    05/2026 GAIA - Artificial Intelligence for Earth and Ocean Science Seminar, UCSD
  • 04/2026 SDSU, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences & Division of Research and Innovation Seminar
  • 02/2026 Princeton Seminar
  • 02/2026 Moody's Earthquake Model Development Seminar
  • 01/2026 CRESCENT Ground Motion Modeling Workshop
  • 01/2026 National Academy of Sciences, COSEG Meeting on "Emerging Quantitative Methods in Geophysics: Committee on Solid Earth Geophysics Meeting" 

2025

  • 12/2025 AGU Fall Meeting 
  • 10/2025 CRESCENT Annual Meeting
  • 09/2025 3rd TECTONIC workshop on Earthquake Physics and Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Tectonic Faulting, Rome, Italy.
  • 09/2025 AIDT4ES Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twins for Earth Systems, Austin, USA
  • 08/2025, S.N. Jepson Lecture, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
  • 08/2025, Joint NNW & MTMOD Workshop, St Arnaud, New Zealand
  • 07/2025, GNS New Zealand, "Seeding workshop to advance collaborative research on the structure, seismicity and hazard of subduction zones in Japan and New Zealand"
  • 05/2025, Earthquake Country Alliance Southern California (ECA SoCal) Workshop
  • 04/2025, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria
  • 03/2025, ETH Zurich, "44 YEARS FROM DEEP EARTH TO DEEP SPACE - Symposium in Honor of Professor Domenico Giardini", Zurich, Switzerland

2024

  • 12/2024, AGU Fall Meeting
  • 11/2024, UCLA, Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences Colloquium
  • 11/2024, TREAD/Earthquake Physics & Induced Seismicity (EPIS) workshop and conference, Lunteren, Netherlands
  • 11/2024, Curiosity Ignited, UCSD, link to recording
  • 09/2024 GFZ Potsdam, Germany, GeoInquire Workshop ``Toward Data Lakes for Recorded and Simulated Earthquake Ground Motions''
  • 07/2024, NMEM Numerical Modeling of Earthquake Motions workshop, Smolenice Castle, Slovakia, July 2024.
  • 06/2024, UC Riverside, Department Seminar
  • 05/2024, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria
  • 04/2024, Princeton Center for Theoretical Science "Fracture across fields: insights from materials science, biology, and geophysics"
  • 03/2024, SIAM-PP Conference on Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing Baltimore, USA

2023

  • 06/2023 Australasian Leadership Computing Symposium (ALCS), Canberra, Australia, Invited Plenary Speaker
  • 06/2023 SIAM-GS, Session “Advances in Bayesian Inversion for Geoscience Problems”
  • 06/2023, GeoInquire Online Seminar “Simulation Data Lakes”
  • 03/2023 ACES (APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Science) International Workshop, Blenheim, NZ
  • 01/2023 USGS Subduction Zone Science Workshop

2022

  • 12/2022 Leopoldina German National Academy of Sciences, Invited Plenary Panelist “Symposium Earth System
    Sciences” 
  • 12/2022 ERC TECTONIC-FEAR Seminar on Earthquake Physics, link to recording
  • 11/2022, Caltech, “Envisioning the Future of Geophysics. A Celebration of the Centennial of the Seismological Laboratory, Caltech”
  • 11/2022 Houston SZ4D Community Meeting
  • 10/2022 Rupture and Fault Zone Observatory (RuFZO) Virtual workshop “Shaping of the Rupture and Fault Zone Observatory”
  • 10/2022 Community for Computational Geodynamics (CIG), Seismic Cycle Modeling Symposium
  • 07/2022 EPFL – ETH Zürich, Switzerland, summer school on the “Mechanics of earthquakes and aseismic slip: linking physics-based models to geophysical observations”
  • 07/2022 Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) Conference, Zurich, Switzerland, Invited Speaker
  • 07/2022 60 years Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ). Science Panelist
  • 06/2022 SAGE/GAGE Community Science Workshop, Invited Speaker
  • 05/2022 EGU General Assembly, Invited Speaker
  • 04/2022 EON-ROSE Workshop on Induced Seismicity, Nanaimo, CA, invited speaker
  • 04/2022 SSA Annual Meeting, Invited Plenary Talk & Panelist “Frontiers in Seismology” &  Invited Talk in Session “Multi-scale Dynamics of Complex Earthquake Faulting and Seismic Wave Propagation”
  • 04/2022 Mathēmatica Sōlis et Terrae: an Australian Academy of Science - Elizabeth and Frederick White Research Conference , ANU Canberra, Australia, Invited Plenary Speaker
  • 03/2022 GFZ Potsdam, Invited Seminar Speaker
  • 02/2022 UC Dublin School of Earth Sciences Seminar (cancelled due to Covid-19)

2021

  • 12/2021, AGU Fall Meeting
  • 11/2021, Stanford Geophysics Virtual Seminar
  • 11/2021 & 02/2022 Invited Speaker German SPP Round Tables “Plate Deformation and Geohazards: The Eastern Margin of the Adriatic Plate”
  • 10/2021, Summer School “Earthquakes: Nucleation, Triggering, and Relationships With seismic Processes”, Cargese, Corsica, France
  • 09/2021 Fault2SHA Learning Series
  • 08/2021 Sirius Mathematics Center Conference, Sochi, Russia
  • 07/2021 Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) Conference, Zurich, Switzerland 
  • 06/2021 ISC High Performance Conference, Distinguished Speaker, Frankfurt, Germany
  • 04/2021 SSA Annual Meeting, Session  “Exploring Rupture Dynamics and Seismic Wave Propagation along Complex Fault System"  
  • 04/2021 ETH Zurich, Civil Engineering department seminar, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 06/2021 University of Padua, Department of Geosciences seminar, Paduva, Italy
  • 06/2021 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Earth System Science Seminar, Hong Kong
  • 06/2021 SIAM-GS Mini-Tutorial "Computational Seismology” and 2 invited talks, Milano, Italy 03/2021 EuroHPC Summit Week, plenary speaker and panelist, Porto, Portugal.

2020

  • 12/2020 AGU Fall Meeting, USA.
  • 11/2020 Harvard EPS BiSEPPs seminar, Harvard, USA.
  • 11/2020 Caltech Seismo Lab seminar, USA.
  • 10/2020 Lamont MG&G/SGT seminar, Columbia University, USA
  • 10/2020 USC Earth Sciences Fall seminar, USA
  • 10/2020 SCEC Dynamic Rupture Ingredients Workshop - Rock Properties, California, USA
  • 10/2020 Community for Computational Geodynamics (CIG) workshop, UC Davis, USA
  • 10/2020 GeoAzur Mardi Seisme seminar, Sophia-Antipolis, France
  • 05/2020 JpGU - AGU Joint Meeting, session “Frontier science on solid Earth with HPC” 
  • 04/2020 Berkeley-IPGP Deformation and Tectonics Online Talk Series.
  • 03/2020 (event postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak) International Conference on Computational Engineering and Science for Safety and Environmental Problems (COMPSAFE), Kobe, Japan.
  • 03/2020 (event postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak) Plenary speaker at the German Geophysical Society  (DGG), Munich, Germany.
  • 01/2020 SCEC Dynamic Rupture Ingredients Workshop - Fault Friction, Pomona, California, USA.


2019 

  • 12/2019 AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA.
  • 10/2019 MCS-RCN Megathrust Modeling Workshop, Eugene, USA.
  • 09/2019 Plenary speaker at the SCEC Annual meeting, Palm Springs, USA