Award for Dagmar Brombierstäudl’s outstanding dissertations with high relevance for environmental research

We are proud to announce that Geographer Dr Dagmar Brombierstäudl has been awarded the Environmental Award of the Viktor and Sigrid Dulger Foundation alongside public health expert Dr Patricia Nayna Schwerdtle.

Brombierstäudl’s dissertation, completed at the South Asia Institute, focuses on the underexplored scientific phenomenon of Aufeis. This term refers to layered ice deposits that form through the freezing of successive water discharges. In her “methodologically sophisticated work”, which has been praised as pioneering, the geographer concentrates on the cold-arid mountain regions of the Trans-Himalaya. However, the HCE award judging panel noted that her findings have wide-ranging significance, as she explores the socio-economic impact and various ways these mountain water resources are used. The results of Dr Brombierstäudl’s cumulative dissertation, “Exploring Aufeis in the Trans-Himalaya: Remote Sensing-Based Studies of a Neglected Cryosphere Component”, have already resulted in several publications.