Promoting Geoscience Research, Education & Success

Birgit Hassler

Dr. Birgit Hassler, Research Scientist

Education and Experience

2017-present: Research Scientist, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany

2009-2017: Research Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via   University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science

2009:  Ph.D. in Meteorology from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

2007-2009: Graduate student at National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Lauder, New Zealand

2004-2006: Research assistant (Precipitation radar research group), Meteorological Observatory Hohenpeiβenberg, Germany

2001-2004:  Research assistant (Ozone research group), Meteorological Observatory Hohenpeiβenberg, Germany

2001: Diplom (M.Sc.) in Hydrology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany

1996: Vordiplom (B.A.), Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany

My interests

My research interests are mainly any aspects of stratospheric ozone – distribution, evolution, measurement systems, analyses, etc. At my first job at the Meteorological Observatory at Hohenpeiβenberg I got exposed to ozonesonde, lidar and Dobson ozone measurements, and fell in love with the whole topic. In 2012, while already working in Boulder at CIRES/NOAA, I was allowed to go to Antarctica, more precisely to the South Pole, for two weeks to deliver a Dobson instrument. The absolute highlight of my career so far!

If I am not working, I like to be outdoors to row (recreationally or training for a regatta), hike or just hang out, I like to sing (in a choir, in voice lessons and sometimes karaoke), and I like to look at my many, many orchids.

How I became a scientist

I was always more interested in science and math than languages while at school, and I always wanted to get a university degree. So after I finished high school I decided to study hydrology, after a friend of my dad told me how incredibly diverse the lectures would be. While I liked my major hydrology, I really loved one of my minor subjects: meteorology. After finishing my Masters degree, I saw a job ad from the Meteorological Observatory Hohenpeiβenberg, and applied. To my surprise, I got the job, without having a Ph.D., and with a hydrology Diplom. During the following years I learned a lot about stratospheric ozone, and decided that I wanted to get a Ph.D. to be able to work in that field of research. While I was doing the work for my Ph.D. in New Zealand, I met Dr. Susan Solomon who invited me to join her group in Boulder after I finished my degree. And that’s what I did.

How my work benefits society

Statospheric ozone research is important for society since people are extremely interested to see if the problem of the “ozone hole” has been solved. Since the signing of the Montreal Protocol in the 1987 and the agreement to phase out the production of chlorofluorocarbons, the main responsible substances for ozone depletion, people want to know if the Montreal Protocol was successful, and if we were indeed able to safe the ozone layer and therefore the planet. In the last few years, especially the search for the first signs of ozone recovery, the ultimate sign that the Montreal Protocol was a success, was the focus of stratospheric ozone research. Every four years the new findings in ozone research is published in the “WMO Ozone Assessment” that informs policy makers and the public about our progress in understanding what is going on with stratospheric ozone. I have been involved in two of those Assessments so far, and at the beginning of 2014 I was invited to speak as a scientific expert to the assembly at the 9th Meeting of Ozone Research Managers at WMO in Geneva.