In close collaboration with Prof Sumiko Tsukamoto, who heads the Research Group Regionalisation in the Department of Geophysical Parametrisation and the renowned geochronology laboratory at LIAG, a unique constellation is now emerging. Together, geochronological and data-science methods will be further developed and applied in innovative ways. The aim is to obtain robust chronological information on the complex dynamics of climate-driven environmental change and to assess its impact on regional terrestrial systems (landscape genesis). This provides quantitative information that helps to understand, for example, the formation and evolution of natural georeservoirs and aquifers. In addition, these data are crucial for investigating subsurface deformation structures, such as faults, which are directly linked to geohazard assessment.

In 2023, Kreutzer was admitted to the Heisenberg Programme by the DFG with the project “DUNE: Deciphering rapid boundary shifts of arid landscapes through space and time by innovative trapped charge dating methods”. He will move from Heidelberg University to the LIAG together with two other researchers – Dr Maryam Heydari and Dirk Mittelstraß. A third team member, Dr Marco Colombo, will remain in Heidelberg but will continue to work actively within the group. As a Quaternary geochronologist with a degree in geography and a strong focus on geo-data science, Kreutzer concentrates on capturing rapid environmental changes and their impacts on past and modern societies. To constrain the timing of events and phases, he applies luminescence dating methods, and his group continuously pushes the methodological limits through new approaches and procedures. A comprehensive, data-driven analytical framework, consistently built on the development of open-source software, underpins transparency and reproducibility in his work. His research areas range from Europe and North Africa to the United States.

“I am very pleased that my team and I can now pursue our research at the LIAG,” says Dr Sebastian Kreutzer. “The LIAG is a unique institute in Europe where applied physics and geosciences come together on research and application level. The institute facilitates a great infrastructure and a state-of-the-art geochronology laboratory that enjoys an excellent reputation within the community. It builds on many years of expertise and together with Prof Tsukamoto, we are, as it were, at the new centre of new methodological discovery in our dating methods.”

“I am absolutely delighted that Dr Kreutzer and his Heisenberg research group will in future strengthen our research area – and in particular the methodological development within luminescence dating of sediments,” says Prof Martin Sauter, director of the institute. “The work planned in Hannover is dedicated to investigating sediments to reconstruct rapid regional environmental changes and to assess georisks in a key region that has so far been little studied. In view of LIAG’s extensive experience with shallow-subsurface geophysical investigations, especially in relation to hydrological regimes, our institute is the ideal location for this work.”

As part of the Kreutzer’s team's move to LIAG, four DFG-funded projects, including one Heisenberg grant, will be transferred to LIAG; an additional independent project awarded to Dr Maryam Heydari will be established.

• 1 DUNE (PI: Sebastian Kreutzer)
  Title:“DUNE: Deciphering rapid boundary shifts of arid landscapes through space and time by innovative trapped charge dating methods”
  
  Funding: DFG Heisenberg Programme (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/505822867)
  
  Description: As an umbrella project, DUNE aims to develop and apply new luminescence dating methods and associated data-driven procedures. Its overarching goal is to constrain the timing of rapid terrestrial landscape shifts in the past, relevant to both past and modern societies.
  
   
• 2 CONSTRAIN (PI: Sebastian Kreutzer)
  Title:“CONSTRAIN: Constraining drought records in the central Great Plains (USA) within the last 1,500 years using innovative luminescence-dating methods”
  
  Funding: DFG/SNF (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/505819035)
  
  Description: As a collaborative project with the Université de Lausanne in Switzerland (PD Dr Christoph Schmidt) and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA (Professor Paul Hanson), CONSTRAIN focuses on two objectives: (1) further developing the auto-regenerative thermoluminescence (TL) dating technique using zircons and (2) applying this method to constrain the timing of drought phases within the last 2,000 years in the Great Plains, specifically using so-called dune blowouts. These are crater-like depressions on dune crests that likely formed only during prolonged dry periods. The use of zircons in this context enables, in particular, the dating of very recent sediment reworking processes.
   
• 3 REPLAY (PI: Sebastian Kreutzer)
  Title:“REPLAY: REProducible Luminescence Data AnalYses”
  
  Funding: DFG – Research Software Programm (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/528704761)
  
  Website: https://replay.r-luminescence.org
  
  Description: Since 2012, currently already 24 scientists from Europe and the USA have been jointly developing an open-source software package for the analysis of luminescence data: “Luminescence”. It is based on the statistical programming environment R. Within REPLAY, a collaborative project with Justus Liebig University Giessen (Dr Thomas Kolb) and further institutes in Germany, Austria, and Poland, the DFG is funding the professionalisation of software development so that it becomes freely accessible beyond the original target community and so that analysis results remain reproducible.
   
• 4 ARENICOLA  (PI: Sebastian Kreutzer)
  Title: “ARENICOLA: Advanced RadiofluorescENce Imaging and grain Classification in Luminescence Applications”
  
  Funding: DFG (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/553815036)
  
  Description: ARENICOLA aims for a methodological breakthrough in the spatially resolved analysis of multispectral radiofluorescence signals. At present, luminescence detection relies mainly on photomultiplier tubes, even though increasingly efficient semiconductor-based systems have become available over the last two decades. These systems are, however, rarely used in dating studies, partly because the associated data processing is challenging. The goal of ARENICOLA is to develop and implement methods for analyzing spatially resolved multispectral radiofluorescence data. Among other techniques, multivariate statistical methods and machine learning will be applied. The aims are to improve existing dating protocols and increase the efficiency of luminescence dating, thereby making a substantial contribution to targeted palaeoenvironmental studies. The single-grain radiofluorescence image data sets and analysis approaches generated within ARENICOLA will be made available as open-source software at the end of the project. Project partner is the HZDR – Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF).
   
• 5 TEHRAN  (PI: Maryam Heydari)
  Title:“TEHRAN: Direct and indirect dating of the North Tehran Fault in the megacity of Tehran using trapped charge dating methods”
  
  Funding: DFG (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/565771895?language=en)
  
  Description: Tehran, a megacity and the capital of Iran, is constantly exposed to the threat of potentially devastating earthquakes, yet it continues to expand across tectonically active faults. One of the most important of these faults is the North Tehran Fault (NTF), which runs along the northern boundary of the city. The project aims to apply dosimetric dating methods (trapped charge dating methods, TCDM) to decode past seismic events as a basis for assessing future phases of activity. The key innovative aspect of TEHRAN lies in the combination of two complementary dating approaches, supported by modelling of signal resetting. This enables improved hazard mitigation, thereby reducing risks to society.

About the Heisenberg Programme

Through the Heisenberg Programme, the DFG supports outstanding researchers who already fulfil all the requirements for appointment to a permanent professorship. The programme is designed to enable them to pursue independent, high-level research at an institution of their choice, to further develop their scientific reputation, and to prepare specifically for a leadership position in academia. The programme is regarded as one of the DFG’s most prestigious career schemes. It offers various funding formats – including Heisenberg fellowship, Heisenberg position, Heisenberg rotating position and Heisenberg professorship – which can be flexibly combined within a funding period that usually lasts five years. (Source: DFG).

In brief: The luminescence dating method

Luminescence dating exploits the ability of natural minerals, such as quartz and feldspar, to store energy. A common analogy is that of a battery, which is charged slowly over many years by natural ionising radiation from the decay of naturally occurring radionuclides in the environment. It releases this energy again as light – so-called luminescence – when heated or exposed to light. For the dating purposes, of interest are both the timing of signal resetting and the governing processes. From the luminescence signal intensity, we can infer how much energy was stored in the minerals. By determining the dose rate caused by natural ionising radiation, it is then possible to calculate precisely when the mineral grains were last exposed to daylight or high temperatures. What makes luminescence dating unique is its direct link to the underlying geoscientific process. For example, it can be used to determine the depositional ages of sediments and rocks or to constrain periods of activity of fault zones.