Dr.Christopher Hamann
(Er/Ihn)

Scientist / (Senior) Scientist

• Dynamics of Nature

• Solar System, Impacts and Meteorites

I run two labs for non-destructive, chemical-structural material analysis using micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy. Using meteorites, samples from space missions, and samples from terrestrial impact craters, I reconstruct extreme conditions during impacts of asteroids and comets and investigate how such events influenced the formation of the planets and moons in our Solar System.

Vita

My academic career began with a degree in geosciences, specializing in mineralogy and petrology, at the Freie Universität Berlin. This was followed by a doctorate in impact research and planetology, which I successfully defended in February 2018 with a summa cum laude rating as part of the DFG-funded research group FOR-887 MEMIN “Multidisciplinary Experimental and Modeling Impact Research Network.” After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, I have been managing various laboratories for materials analysis at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin for more than five years.

Further information

My doctoral research has been recognized with awards such as the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) Career Development Award 2015. I am a member of the German Mineralogical Society, the German Society for Planetary Research, and the Meteoritical Society, and I regularly prepare expert reports for third-party funding agencies (e.g., Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) as well as scientific journals (including Nature Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Meteortical & Planetary Sciences). In addition to my work as a laboratory manager, I offer MSc courses on chemical analysis of planetary materials and impact processes as a lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin.