Prof. Dr. Friedhelm von Blanckenburg: Why our Planet is Blue – the Earth's Geological Thermostat [Lecture in German]

To mark the 20th anniversary of our faculty, a series of lectures will be held this summer semester with selected talks from the biology, geology and chemistry sections. As part of this celebratory colloquium, Prof. Dr. Friedhelm von Blanckenburg will give a lecture in German, on Monday 5 May at 17:15 in Lecture Hall HB.A (Callinstr. 30, Geology section) entitled:

„Warum unser Planet blau ist – der geologische Thermostat der Erde“

Friedhelm von Blanckenburg is Professor of Geochemistry of Earth Surface Geochemistry at the FU Berlin. His research there includes the effects of vegetation and erosion on the weathering of basaltic and carbonate rocks using new isotope geochemical methods as part of his ERC Advanced Grant ‘Devendra’, which he was awarded in 2023. Until 2023, he also headed Section 3.3 ‘Earth Surface Geochemistry’ at the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Prior to this, he was Professor of Geochemistry at Leibniz University Hannover until 2008. In addition to his outstanding achievements in research, he has also made great contributions to the transfer of geoscientific research to politics and society. As a member of the Leopoldina, he was involved in the preparation of the Report on Tomorrow’s Science ‘Earth System Science – Discovery, Diagnosis, and Solutions in Times of Global Change’, which was published in 2022. He was also involved in the preparation of the white paper 'Emerging Fields in the Geosciences Discovery · Diagnosis · Solutionss’, which was recently published by the umbrella organisation Dachverband der Geowissenschaften (where he is spokesperson for the Collaborative Projects Working Group) and presented at a public event in Berlin on 4 April 2025.