Marianne Haseloff investigated the impacts of climate change on the stability of marine ice sheets in Antarctica. Ice sheets on land, but with their bed lying below sea level are called ‘marine’ ice sheets. Using the land-ice-model PIK-PISM, developed by a PIK research group led by Anders Levermann, Haseloff improved the representation of glacier dynamics in the transition zone between grounded and floating ice.
Her work is especially relevant for studies of future sea-level rise. Recent studies indicate that the sea level could rise by more than one meter in the 21st century – much more than stated in the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.
Haseloff is currently doing a PhD at the University of British Columbia, Canada and a PhD at PIK. She has taken up working in Vancouver.
Academic publications covering a subject named by the Erhard Höpfner Foundation each year can be nominated for the award. In 2009, the subject was ‘protection of the environment’. A committee of experts of the Berliner Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft selects the usually two best works. The awards are endowed with prize money of 5000 Euros in total.
Further information:
Summary of the Diploma Thesis: Modelling the Transition between Ice Sheet and Ice
Shelf with the Parallel Ice Sheet Model PISM-PIK (German, pdf-file, 0,5 MB)
Erhard-Höpfner-Award
http://web.fu-berlin.de/akip/ehs/index.html
Berliner Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft
http://www.bwg-berlin.de/
