I am a scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Previously, I worked for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as an internal consultant on statistical computing. I have also been a consultant to numerous government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Executive Office of the President, and the United States Department of Homeland Security. I am a passionate educator, teaching mathematics and statistics at the University of Maryland University College since 2010 and have taught public management at Central Michigan University, Penn State, and the University of Baltimore.

I am fortunate to play in everyone else’s backyard. My most recent published scholarship has modeled the population of Earth-orbiting satellites, analyzed the risks of flood insurance, predicted disruptive events, and sought to understand small business cybersecurity. I have written two books on my work and am currently co-editing two more.

In my spare time, I serve Howard County, Maryland, as a member of the Board of Appeals and the Watershed Stewards Academy Advisory Committee of the University of Maryland Extension. Prior volunteer experience includes providing economic advice to the Columbia Association, establishing an alumni association for the College Park Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, and serving on numerous public and private volunteer advisory boards.

I am a marine environmental scientist by training (U Oldenburg, 2001) with a PhD in atmospheric physics (U Wuppertal, 2005) and a strong modeling focus throughout my career.

Archaological modeling

I have built models (C, C++) for understanding the regional transitions from hunting-gathering subsistence to agropastoral life styles throughout the world. The fundamental principle of these models is to consider aggregate traits of populations, such as the preference for a subsistence style. I applied these models to the European “Wave of Advance”, to the disintegration of the urban Indus civilisation and to the differential emergence of agropastoralism in the Americas versus Europe, but also globally. An interesting outcome of these models are global and reginoally resolved prehistoric CO2 emissions caused by the land use transitions.

Ecosystem modeling

I have built and applied models for understanding the ecological relations and biogeochemical flows through the North Sea ecosystem. Also for this research I apply trait-based models, looking at traits such as vertical positioning or energy allocation. As an outcome, I have, e.g., estimated the biomass of blue mussels in the North Sea and quantified the effect of Offshore Wind Farm biofouling on the sea’s produtivity.

Model coupling

I led the development of the Earth System coupler MOSSCO, leveraging ESMF technologies. I like to rip legacy models apart and reconstruct them with interoperability and reusability by design. I contribute to building the next-generation modular hurricane forecasting system.

Good scientific modeling practices

As a member of the Open Modeling Foundation (OMF), I am an evangelist of good scientific software practices, and educate and publish about improving underlying assumptions, stating clear purposes, keeping models simple and aquiring tools to further good practices.