The Nexus Group introduces itself: Dr. Christoph Jörges

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Dr. Christoph Jörges joined the Nexus Research Group in March 2024. For his habilitation, he is focusing on food security and agriculture, primarily using hybrid modelling — a combination of process-based and data-driven models. This approach can be used for making early yield predictions.

What about your research excites you the most?

Every day, I work on topics that are highly relevant for society. Especially regarding climate action, we need to find a way how we can continue living on our planet together. And with my research, I can contribute to this. I enjoy working with data and statistical models to generate new information. By combining data analysis with machine learning and process modeling, I can simulate and better understand complex processes on our planet—both natural and human-made. I also like to use remote sensing data, as it provides us with valuable insights from space into what is happening on the Earth's surface. It motivates me to contribute to climate change adaptation, especially with the interdisciplinary geographic perspective that our research group brings to the topic.

If you could design a research project according to your wishes, what would you want to work on?

Research is teamwork. I believe that interdisciplinary and international collaboration is particularly rewarding because it brings together diverse knowledge. This is especially important when addressing complex questions about the future of our food supply. Ideally, I would conduct a large field campaign to calibrate and validate my work in hybrid modeling. Field data are essential, especially when working with satellite data. With my background in computer science, I love using statistical methods to analyze data and the underlying processes—and for that, we need a lot of high-quality data as a foundation.

What common misconception about your research would you like to dispel?

Today, we have more accessible and extensive knowledge about our planet than ever before. This knowledge would be sufficient to make informed decisions in areas like climate protection and sustainable agriculture—yet we still fail to implement it. We cannot always wait for even more reliable and definitive information. There will always be uncertainties in science, and we work hard to minimize them as much as possible. However, some decisions are so urgent that we must make them now, based on the best knowledge and understanding we have.

Read more on Christoph's work

Jörges C, d’Hondt J E, Chatzigeorgakidis G, Migdall S, Miesgang C, Karg S, Bach H, Betchavas P & Skoutas D (2023) Leaf Area Index Time Series Imputation For Early Yield Prediction, Big Data From Space 2023 Proceedings.

Jörges C, Vidal H S, Hank T & Bach H (2023) Detection of Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants Using Satellite and Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging, DOI: 10.3390/rs15133403, Remote Sensing.

Jörges C, Berkenbrink C, Gottschalk H & Stumpe B (2023) Spatial ocean wave height prediction with CNN mixed-data deep neural networks using random field simulated bathymetry, DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.113699, Ocean Engineering.