Network Science Group

Team:

Professor
	Dirk Witthaut Prof. d.witthaut'at'fz-juelich.de I studied physics in Kaiserslautern and received my PhD in 2007 with a thesis on the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates. After a period of teaching in Kigali, Rwanda, and research at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, I joined the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organization in Goettingen. Since 2014 I am heading a research group at Forschungszentrum Juelich and I have been appointed Professor in Cologne in 2022.
Post Docs
	Philipp Böttcher p.boettcher'at'fz-juelich.de I wrote my Bachelor's and Master's thesis in the complex systems lab of Stefan Bornholdt at the University of Bremen. In my Bachelor's thesis, I investigated the phase transition of a kinetic variant of the voter-model, which is a prototypical opinion formation model. My Master's thesis aimed at explaining the large price fluctuations seen for fuel prices using a trust game. Here, the effects of knowledge of the best price and spatial constraints were of special interest. From June 2016, I worked at the DLR - Institute of Networked Energy Systems in Oldenburg, where I investigated the stability of electricity grids in relation with delayed control. I joined the network science group in June of 2020. My current research focus is the stability of electricity grids and the analysis of power-system related data.
Doctoral Candidates
	Chuck Han Ph.D. candidate ch.han'at'fz-juelich.de I started my physics career at the University of Iowa, IA, USA. I received my bachelor degrees in applied mathematics and physics with a minor in chemistry from there in May 2014. I moved to Bonn to start my master study. I have been working with Jun.-Prof. Witthaut since the beginning of 2017. I finished my master thesis in July 2018 under the supervision of Jun.-Prof. Witthaut, with the title "Statistical Physics of Economic Network Formation and Robustness." Since February 2019, I returned to the group for my Ph.D. project. My current focus is on Econo-Physics, more specifically, using network theory to model and understand economic systems.
	Johannes Kruse Ph.D. candidate jo.kruse'at'fz-juelich.de I studied physics in Göttingen and obtained my Master's degree in February 2019. During the last year of my studies I stayed in Aarhus (Denmark), where I did my Master's thesis in Prof. Martin Greiner's research group. Since August 2019, I am a PhD student in FZ Jülich and a part of the Helmholtz School for Data Science in Life, Earth and Energy. My goal is to apply methods from Data Science to large, heterogeneous data sets from energy systems, such as high-resolution frequency measurements or long wind-power production time series. GitHub profile: https://github.com/johkruse
	Maurizio Titz Ph.D. candidate m.titz'at'fz-juelich.de I am studying how line failures in statically n-1 stable power grids can lead to further transient failures. My goal is to predict these possible transient failures from the steady states using Machine Learning.
Master Candidates
	Dorothea Kistinger M.Sc. candidate Finishing my master in Data Science at RWTH Aachen, I am associated with Prof. Witthaut‘s group for my master‘s thesis. At the interface of theoretical methods and sustainable developement, I apply techniques from explainable AI to explore regional differences of ownership of electric vehicles and installations of photovoltaic systems in Germany.
	Carsten Hartmann M.Sc. candidate c.hartmann'at'fz-juelich.de I study physics at the University of Cologne. In my Master thesis project, I investigate origins and drivers of patterns in power grid frequency time series.
	Julius Trebbien M.Sc. candidate j.trebbien'at'fz-juelich.de In 2017 I started studying physics in Cologne. In 2022 I joined the group to work on topics regarding the power grid frequency stability and electricity prices using data science and machine learning methods for my master thesis.
	Sebastian Pütz M.Sc. candidate sebastian.puetz'at'smail.uni-koeln.de For my bachelor's thesis, I studied the simulation of quantum circuits in the quantum information science group of David Gross. I joined the network science group in November 2021 for my master's project, in which I aim to use machine learning and methods from data science to investigate power system operation.
	Hannes Hilger M.Sc. candidate hannes.hilger'at'smail.uni-koeln.de TBA
Bachelor Students