August 4, 2023

Helmholtz Doctoral Prize awarded to EOC scientist

EOC scientist Dr Mariel Dirscherl was honoured with the 2022 Helmholtz Doctoral Prize on July 13, 2023. The presentation of the prize certificate took place in Berlin at a ceremony in the Spreepalais.

Mariel Dirscherl at the award ceremony​ © David Marschalsky

The 2022 Helmholtz Doctoral Prize for mission-oriented research was awarded to eleven recipients from the six research fields of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. Ms Dirscherl was distinguished for her science achievements in the Aviation, Space and Transport field. In her dissertation entitled “Remote Sensing of Supraglacial Lake Dynamics in Antarctica – Exploiting Methods from Artificial Intelligence for Derivation of Antarctic Supraglacial Lake Extents in Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data” she analysed the dynamics of Antarctic surface melting and developed an AI-based methodology for the automated detection of these lakes in satellite images. 

From left: Jannes Münchmeyer, Peera Simakachorn, Hannes Radinger, Chiara Falcomata, Flavio Baleeiro, Mariel Dirscherl, Lucas Pereira, Otmar D. Wiestler, Richard Gebauer, Chunlei Jiao, Nick Karcher. © David Marschalsky

Each year the Helmholtz Doctoral Prize honors outstanding dissertations with the intent to encourage post-doctoral students to pursue a career in science and carry out mission-oriented research at the intersection of basic and applied research. In addition to prize money of €5,000, the award includes a Helmholtz Field Study Fellowship of up to three months.