I am a marine environmental scientist by training (U Oldenburg, 2001) with a PhD in atmospheric physics (U Wuppertal, 2005) and a strong modeling focus throughout my career.

Archaological modeling

I have built models (C, C++) for understanding the regional transitions from hunting-gathering subsistence to agropastoral life styles throughout the world. The fundamental principle of these models is to consider aggregate traits of populations, such as the preference for a subsistence style. I applied these models to the European “Wave of Advance”, to the disintegration of the urban Indus civilisation and to the differential emergence of agropastoralism in the Americas versus Europe, but also globally. An interesting outcome of these models are global and reginoally resolved prehistoric CO2 emissions caused by the land use transitions.

Ecosystem modeling

I have built and applied models for understanding the ecological relations and biogeochemical flows through the North Sea ecosystem. Also for this research I apply trait-based models, looking at traits such as vertical positioning or energy allocation. As an outcome, I have, e.g., estimated the biomass of blue mussels in the North Sea and quantified the effect of Offshore Wind Farm biofouling on the sea’s produtivity.

Model coupling

I led the development of the Earth System coupler MOSSCO, leveraging ESMF technologies. I like to rip legacy models apart and reconstruct them with interoperability and reusability by design. I contribute to building the next-generation modular hurricane forecasting system.

Good scientific modeling practices

As a member of the Open Modeling Foundation (OMF), I am an evangelist of good scientific software practices, and educate and publish about improving underlying assumptions, stating clear purposes, keeping models simple and aquiring tools to further good practices.

As a data scientist, I employ a variety of ecoinformatic tools to understand and improve the sustainability of complex social-ecological systems.  I also apply Science and Technology Studies lenses to my modeling processes in order to see potential ways to make social-ecological system management more just.  I prefer to work collaboratively with communities on modeling: teaching mapping and modeling skills, collaboratively building data representations and models, and analyzing and synthesizing community-held data as appropriate. At the same time, I look for ways to create space for qualitative and other forms of knowledge to reside alongside quantitative analysis, using mixed and integrative methods.

Recent projects include: 1) Studying Californian forest dynamics using Bayesian statistical models and object-based image analysis (datasets included forest inventories and historical aerial photographs); 2) Indigenous mapping and community-based modeling of agro-pastoral systems in rural Zimbabwe (methods included GPS/GIS, agent-based modeling and social network analysis); 3) Supporting Tribal science and environmental management on the Klamath River in California using historical aerial image analysis of land use/land cover change and social networks analysis of water quality management processes; 4) Bayesian statistical modeling of community-collected data on human uses of Marine Protected Areas in California.

GIS enthusiast and ABM practitioner

Dr. Kimberly G. Rogers studies the coupled human-natural processes shaping coastal environments. She obtained a B.Sc. in Geological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and began her graduate studies on Long Island at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. Rogers completed her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, where she specialized in nearshore and coastal sediment transport. She was a postdoctoral scholar and research associate at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2014, her foundation in the physical sciences was augmented by training in Environmental Anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington through an NSF Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) Fellowship.

Amineh Ghorbani is an assistant professor at the Engineering Systems and Services Department, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. She is also an affiliated member of the “Institutions for Collective Action” at Utrecht University. She obtained her M.Sc. in Computer Science (Artificial intelligence) from University of Tehran (Iran) (2009, honours) and her PhD from Delft University of Technology (2013, cum laude).

During her PhD, Amineh developed a meta-model for agent-based modelling, called MAIA, which describes various concepts and relations in a socio-technical system. This modelling perspective helped her develop a modelling paradigm that she refers to as institutional modelling.

Her current area of research is understanding the emergence and dynamics of institutions (set of rule organizing human society) using modelling. She is interested in how bottom-up collective action emerges and how institutions emergence and change within communities.