Interview with Prof. Bernhard Mayer

Q. What is your research focus?

A. My research focuses on radiative transfer and remote sensing of the atmosphere. Remote sensing means measuring the atmosphere from a distance, rather than directly at the location where the measurement is being made. These measurements can be taken from the ground, from an aircraft, or from satellites. The main research question I work on is clouds - their effect on climate, and the interaction between clouds and radiation.

Q. What sparked your journey into this field?

A. I studied physics because I found it really interesting. At my school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, we had a really, really good physics and mathematics teacher, and I then just wanted to study physics because it was so interesting.

By coincidence, I found a student job at the Institute for Atmospheric Environmental Research (IFU), where I built an aircraft instrument to measure nitrogen oxides. It was so interesting that I stayed in the field of atmospheric research.

Q. What has been the most awe-inspiring moment in your research?

A. There are many, many small moments whenever we encounter something interesting. Our flight experiments, especially when we fly above and through clouds, are always exciting. For instance we measured deep convective clouds in the Intertropical Convergence Zone during the PERCUSION campaign in 2024.

Normal aircraft passengers usually never experience these storms because commercial planes fly around them. But for our research flights, the routesare planned in advance, and we want to keep the schedule to get a more random sampling of the clouds. So we flew right through them.

Experiencing deep convection in a research aircraft, with the aircraft shaking for nearly an hour, was a really interesting moment.

I also like working with students. Whenever they discover something interesting, that is a great moment as well.

Q. Is there something you wish more people understood about your field?

A. Climate change is not a strange idea from a small group of scientists. It is based on solid physics. The greenhouse effect, and the physics behind it, has been understood since the 19th century. We know that it exists, and we know that increasing Earth’s temperature by one, two, or three degrees is a major change. If that was accepted and understood more widely, that would already be a very good step.

Q. If you had to list 3 ingredients for success in research, what would they be?

A. Choose a topic that you are excited about, else you will not really dig into it or pursue it deeply. It takes time to build a name in science, so the topic has to keep your fascination. Find something that is interesting and stick with it.

At the same time, be open to new developments. Right now, for example, artificial intelligence is changing many things.

Q. If you could give one piece of advice to young scientists, what would that be?

A. Stay open and be willing to move, at least for some part of your life. People are often anxious about leaving their hometown. I never really thought about leaving my hometown until the opportunity came to move to the United States as a Postdoc. That experience made me realize there are many interesting places, and that the position you want usually does not simply come to you - you have to go and find it.

By chance I got a professorship only about 100 kilometers from where I was born, but that is not something you can plan. So be open with respect to topics, be mobile, and keep learning new things.

Q. What is your perspective on the field of geoastronomy? What do you think is its significance for current research ?

A. I like the idea of geoastronomy a lot. When different disciplines come together, it usually takes time until the scientists from different fields learn to speak the same language. I know this from collaborative projects where physicists, meteorologists, and mathematicians meet and try to understand each other’s language. It usually takes a few years. But then you can make real progress, because you begin to see that other fields have methods you were not even aware of. By joining these fields, we can learn much more.