Institute New arrival at heiLUM: Dirk Mittelstraß
We are delighted to welcome Dirk Mittelstraß as our newest member in the heiLUM team.
Dirk joins us as a PhD student in the DFG-funded project ARENICOLA: Advanced Radiofluorescence Imaging and Grain Classification in Luminescence Applications. He will develop automated grain classification pipelines, multi-spectral signal deconvolution, and generate open-source software and training datasets that will propel luminescence dating and data analysis. ARENICOLA is joint DFG research project (#553815036) of Heidelberg University and the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF).
Dirk’s background is in applied physics, luminescence dosimetry, and spectrometry, making him uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between sophisticated instrumentation and cutting-edge data science. Still an undergraduate student back then, from 2009 to 2014, Dirk was one of the engineers behind the lexsyg research luminescence dosimetry system developed by Freiberg Instruments. After a recent tenure at Sentronic GmbH in Dresden, where he helped to advance NIR spectrometers for the pharmaceutical industry, he is returning to the luminescence dating community with a focus on single-grain radiofluorescence analysis and machine-learning-driven luminescence image interpretation.
Dirk’s enthusiasm for exploring and improving measurement techniques, combined with his deep experience in C# and R, is an asset to our team as we push the frontiers of Quaternary Geochronology.
Dirk, we are happy to have you on board and look forward to the exciting discoveries ahead!
