I’m a Postdoc in the Networked Embedded Sensing group at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) with J. Beutel. We investigate bedrock permafrost in steep mountain slopes by developing and deploying wireless sensor networks.

Since my BSc thesis, my research has focused on mountain permafrost and its perhaps most beautiful expression—rock glaciers. I have been involved in several projects, including: exposure-dating a rock glacier to reconstruct the local Holocene climate history from its formation phases (with S. Ivy-Ochs, ETH Zürich); tracking heat and water flows in a rock glacier to understand its surface energy balance, heat transfer, and ground ice budget (with M. Scherler, M. Hoelzle, and C. Hauck, Uni Fribourg); introducing repeat hydro-gravimetry on rock glaciers as a tool to quantify subsurface water/ice storage changes (with L. Halloran, Uni Neuchâtel); and building a below-ground sensor network in a coarse-blocky active layer (with H. Gubler, Alpug Davos). I have fieldwork experience in the Alps, Tien Shan, and Andes, and am particularly interested in cold underground spaces, such as ventilated scree slopes and caves.

During my PhD project at the University of Fribourg (2020–2024), we measured the heat flux across the coarse-blocky active layer of rock glacier Murtèl (Upper Engadine, Switzerland) and calculated its energy budget, including the seasonal build-up and melt of ground ice. Our investigations revealed intricate links between sensible heat storage in the blocks and the latent effects of seasonal ice turnover (freezing/melting) in the pore space. The resulting process understanding helps elucidate the hydrological role of rock glaciers, uncover the mechanisms that make them robust against climate warming, and explain why even these most robust of all mountain permafrost landforms are degrading in our current climate.

In a strange twist, much of the novel below-ground sensing system—along with a significant portion of the PERMOS installations built in the 80s and 90s—was destroyed at the end of my PhD project by a massive boulder that detached from the degrading permafrost headwall above the rock glacier. We’re entering uncharted territory.