Katharina Heck is one of a total of three AQUA Study Award winners for 2021.
Katharina's outstanding dissertation on "Modelling and analysis of multicomponent transport at the interface between free and porous-medium flow - influenced by radiation and roughness" was supervised by Rainer Helmig.
The work deals with the investigation of non-isothermal multiphase flow and radiation-influenced multicomponent processes controlling mass transfer at the land-atmosphere interface through an integrated treatment of the atmospheric boundary layer and land-surface roughness on a laboratory scale. The core of the work is the improvement of the model concept for multiphase porous medium flow coupled to a free flow, including multicomponent transport and radiation.
During her doctoral studies, Katharina was actively involved in various research projects of the chair and took on diverse tasks in teaching and administration. In particular, it is worth highlighting that she played a key role in the application process for Collaborative Research Centre 1313 "Interfacially driven multi-field processes in porous media - flow, transport and deformation", which was approved by the DFG in 2017. Throughout the SFB's first funding phase, she was an indispensable member of the management team.