My name is Anna, and I am studying Earth and Climate System Science at the University of Hohenheim. When I was thinking about what and where I wanted to write my master’s thesis, I came across the HESCOR project at the University of Cologne. I found it fascinating that many different fields are part of the project, and I was intrigued by the interdisciplinarity and the topic in general.
Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nikki Vercauteren and Dr. Annika Vogel I have been working for the last few months on the “Human Existence Potential” Model. My current work focuses on developing a framework within this model that makes it possible to integrate uncertainties and different biases.
When I joined the project in September 2025, I was quite overwhelmed by the large number of researchers from different disciplines and departments involved in HESCOR. But it is great that they all bring different expertise into the project. It is very valuable to experience how these kinds of projects work and how many things you need to keep in mind. For me and my master thesis especially, the exchange with the archaeologists and meteorologists is particularly interesting and of great value.
Since the beginning of 2026, I have also been working as student research assistant within HESCOR. I mainly focus on the preparation of different codes from the HESCOR project for their publication on GitHub. This work includes a comprehensive documentation of the code, creating well-structured GitHub repositories, and verifying that the code runs smoothly on other devices.
Over the last few months, I have gained a lot of experiences in interdisciplinary workflows, coding, programming and the use of GitHub. I am very grateful for that and excited for what the next months will bring!
