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Gregor Mathes
Gregor Mathes is a PostDoc at the University of Zurich. His research interests include conservation palaeontology, analytical macroecology, and data science. He applies novel statistical tools to the fossil record to gain insights about Earths history. Using this information about the past, he focuses on the conservation of recent biodiversity under current climate change. A big ambition in Gregor Mathes work is the use and creation of free and open software.
Education
PostDoc
University of Zurich
Zurich
2023 - 2022
- PostDoc position on shark extinction risk together with Catalina Pimiento
- Additionally contributing to research projects of other team members
- Uni-Website
PhD. Candidate, Analytical Palaeobiology
University of Bayreuth
Bayreuth
2022 - 2019
- Dissertation: The role of climate legacies in shaping extinction risk throughout Earth’s history
- Additionally contributing to various research projects of other team member covering sports ecology, macroecology, and geology. Providing help for programming, statistics, and data visualisation
- Uni-Website
M.Sc., Analytical Palaeobiology and Earth System Research lab
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019 - 2018
- Thesis: The effect of palaeoclimate interactions on the extinction risk of organism
- Focus on statistics, programming, and academic skills
- Uni-Website
B.Sc., Geoscience
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2018 - 2013
- Thesis: Diagenesis of Halimeda
- Focus on palaeobiology, applied sedimentology, and geochemistry/ petrology
Abitur
Hans-Sachs Gymnasium Nuremberg
Nuremberg
2013 - 2005
- Thesis: Die Alpen - Paradebeispiel plattentektonischer Prozesse
- Focus on German, Mathematics, English, History, and Physics
Publications
Five million years of high atmospheric CO2 in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction
Geology
N/A
2022
- Michael Joachimski, Johann Müller, Daoliang Chu, Timothy Gallagher, Vladimir Silantiev, Fedor Mouraviev, Yadong Sung, Gregor H. Mathes, J. Tong
- Read the paper here
Benthic foraminifera as bioindicators for assessing reef condition in Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu, Hawai’i
Pacifc Conservation Biology
N/A
2022
- Gregor H. Mathes, Manuel J. Steinbauer, Laura Cotton
- Read the paper here
Extinction risk controlled by interaction of long-term and short-term climate change
Nature Ecology and Evolution
N/A
2021
- Gregor H. Mathes, Jeroen van Dijk, Wolfgang Kiessling, Manuel J. Steinbauer
- Read the paper here
Deep-time climate legacies affect origination rates of marine genera
PNAS
N/A
2021
- Gregor H. Mathes, Wolfgang Kiessling, Manuel J. Steinbauer
- Read the paper here
Software development
A big ambition in my work is the use and creation of free and open software.
fotofallen - TensorFlow Model
Bayerische Landesanstalt für Wald und Forstwirtschaft
Freising
2020
- Convolutional Neural Network for image classification of camera trap images
Selected Posters and Talks
Range shifts of planktonic foraminifera assemblages in response to climate change over the past 700,000 years
GSA Annual Meeting
N/A
2022
- Denver, USA
- DOI
Climate legacies and interactions accelerate turnover in terrestrial plant assemblages over the past 21,000 years
GSA Annual Meeting
N/A
2022
- Denver, USA
- DOI
Deep-time climate legacies affect origination rates of marine genera
Crossing the Palaeontological – Ecological Gap
N/A
2021
- Online conference
- HTML slides
Cascading palaeoclimate interactions affect origination rate of marine genera
International Meeting of Early-stage Researchers in Palaeontology
N/A
2021
- Online conference
- HTML slides
Marine origination rates linked to interactions of past temperature trends with short-term climate change
Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting
N/A
2020
- Online conference
- HTML version of the poster
Extinction risk controlled by climate interactions
BayCEER Workshop 2020
N/A
2020
- Online conference
Biodiversity turnover controlled by interaction of long-term and short-term climate change
YOMOS 2020
N/A
2020
- Online conference
Extinction risk controlled by interaction of long-term and short-term climate change
Conservation Paleobiology Symposium
University of Bologna
2020
- A talk on the first project in my PhD schedule
A novel approach to define evolutionary units in Phanerozoic reefs
Macroecology 2019
University of Würzburg
2019
- A talk about a project from my master program
Anthropogenic impacts on benthic foraminiferal assemblages, Oahu, Hawaii
Forams 2018
University of Edinburgh
2018
- A poster presentation at my first academic conference.
Industry Experience
I am a member of the Conservation Paleobiology Network and currently chair of the training series sub-committee. I am a private lecturer at the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung e.V. providing talks and classes on climate change and Earths system.
Lecturer
Hanns-Seidel Stiftung
Kloster Banz
Current - 2019
- Lecturer for one week workshops covering topics such as mass extinctions or climate change
Data Warehouse Solution
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019 - 2018
- Created a data base for the thin section collection of the Faculty Palaeobiology
- Data base environment based on WissKI
Teaching Experience
Lecturer
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
Current - 2020
- Served as TA for foraminifera lecture in the microfossils course 2020 of the master program “Analytical Palaeobiology”
Lecturer
University of Bayreuth
Bayreuth
2022
- Served as TA for analytical palaeobiology, providing both lectures and practice courses for graduate students from various departments in Bayreuth
Lecturer
University of Bayreuth
Bayreuth
2021
- Served as TA for analytical palaeobiology, providing both lectures and practice courses for graduate students from various departments in Bayreuth
Lecturer
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019
- Served as TA for foraminifera lecture in the microfossils course 2019 of the master program “Analytical Palaeobiology”
Lecturer
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019 - 2017
- Invited talks on carbonate microfacies during the internationally renowned Flügel-Course
- Focus on foraminifera and thin sections
Selected Awards and Honors
Dissertation - Summa cum laude
University of Bayreuth
Bayreuth
2023
- Dissertation with highest honours
- News-article
Cited in the IPCC’s sixth assessment report
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
N/A
2022
- Citation for our paper on complex cascading effects in the climate system (Mathes et al. 2021) in chapter 1 of the Working Group 2 SPM
Best Talk Award - Third Prize
Bayreuther Zentrum für Ökologie und Umweltforschung (BayCEER)
Bayreuth
2020
- Young researcher award. Presentation title: Extinction risk controlled by climate interactions
Best student talk
Conservation Paleobiology Symposium
Bologna
2020
- Presentation title: Extinction risk controlled by interaction of long-term and short-term climate change
Master thesis with distinction
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019
- Awarded for master theses with an overall grade below 1.2
Invited talk on carbonate microfacies
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019
- Invited talk at the international course on carbonate microfacies about foraminifera and their applications
Winner of the 1st FAU International Science Slam
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2018
- The Faculty of Sciences hosted FAU’s first International Science Slam. Presentation title: Warning: the following presentation may contain foraminifera
Science outreach
Trying to make my reseach accessible and public, I am engaging in various open science efforts. Please feel free to contact me if you want me to come to your school, company, or conference.
Geologic field trips
Franconian Switzerland
Nuremberg
Current - 2016
- Organiser of educational and interdisciplinary excursions for school classes.
Public talks
Various
N/A
Current - 2017
- Various talks about climate change given at schools and colleges
Online lectures
The Halifax Academy
West Yorkshire
2020
- Various online talks for school classes about the sixth mass extinction
Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019
- Organiser of a big science outreach event at the Geoscience faculty
- Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften
Erlanger Markttage
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2019 - 2018
- Co-Organiser of a science outreach event in Erlangen
- Markttage des Wissens
Kinderuniversität
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Nuremberg
2019
- Co-Organiser of a science outreach event for children in Nuremberg
- Kinderuni Nürnberg
Selected Data Science Writing
I regularly blog about data science, statistic, and data visualisation on my blog
Statistical Rethinking
Personal website
N/A
Current - 2020
- A series of blog posts going through the second version of Richard McElreaths Statistical Rethinking
- Statistical Rethinking
- Helpful resources
Statistical tests
Personal website
N/A
2021
- A series of blog posts on statistical tests disguised as regression tests
- [Regression tests)(https://gregor-mathes.netlify.app/tags/regression-in-disguise/)
- Helpful resources
Invited blog post on the Nature Ecology and Evolution community website
N/A
2021
- Blog post following up on the publication ** Extinction risk controlled by interaction of long-term and short-term climate change**.
How to disclose code and data for peer-review
Personal website
N/A
2020
- Intro to my preferred method for giving reviewers access to both raw code and data of a submitted manuscript
- How to disclose code and data for peer-review
- Helpful resources
Introduction to ggplot2
Personal website
N/A
2020
- Workshop on R’s ggplot package for data visualisation for the palaeobiology master students at Uni Erlangen
- Introduction to ggplot2 (Part 1)
- Helpful resources
Invited article for new students at FAU
N/A
2019
- Tips and recommendations for new students at the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Attended workshops
UFZ-Winterschool: Ecologic modelling
Helmholtz Zentrum
Leipzig
2019
- A two week in presence coding school on ecological models with C++
RangeShiftR workshop
Humboldt University
Berlin
2019
- A four day in presence coding school on the R package RangeShiftR
International Course on Organofacies Analysis
Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
Erlangen
2018
- A five day in presence workshop on organofacies analysis using microscopy techniques.