Christian Hirt

Dr Christian Hirt, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Spatial Sciences, holds a German Dipl.-Ing. And a Dr.-Ing. degree in Geodesy. His professional appointments include stays at University of Hannover and HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany (as an Associate Professor). Christian is responsible for the successful development of a Digital Zenith Camera System, and the development of high-resolution gravity field models for Moon and Mars, and the European Alps region, and a suite of Earth's topography and potential models (Earth2012). He has been involved in the development of regional gravimetric geoid models (Australia, New Zealand). Christian has more than 60 (among them 40 peer-reviewed) scientific publications in his name, most of them as a senior author.

Together with others, Christian is responsible or made essential contributions in attracting $1.25 Mio AUD worth of research funding. He is Chief Investigator of a $450,000 AUD Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project on the use of GOCE satellite gravimetry over the Australian region Christian’s research work is recognised by prestigious awards, among them a Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (DORA) from the ARC, a rare (success rate less than 6%) and prestigious Fellowship awarded by the ARC to outstanding mid-career ARC scientists. Christian is one of only two researchers of Curtin University, who have received the DORA award in the 2011 round.