Dr. Gesine Steudle
Main Focus
My main research focus is how to account for human agency in mathematical models. This is important to better understand the dynamics of complex social-technical, socio-economic or socio-ecological system. I am particularly interested in transitions between different regimes of such systems manifesting themselves in some sort of structural changes. My main method for investigating such systems is to develop mathematical and/or computational models, which, however, need to be grounded in empirical and theoretical findings from the respective research area, such that modelling complex systems is always an interdisciplinary and co-creative endeavour.
As humans have become a factor in the evolution of the earth system, representations of 'human agency' have to be taken up in models for geoanthropology. A better analytical understanding of the co-evolution of such coupled systems is also very useful to think about possible intervention points to foster change or enhance stability.
Curriculum Vitae
Gesine studied physics in Berlin and Granada (Spain) with a focus on optics and statistical physics and obtained her PhD from Humboldt-University Berlin in the field of experimental quantum optics. She worked at a private consulting company in the area of energy efficiency and renewable energies before she joined the Global Climate Forum where she did mathematical modelling of economic systems, such as models for green growth and sustainable finance, with a focus on agent-based models. Afterwards, she went to the Zuse Institute Berlin working on the mathematics for agent-based models of such complex socio-economic systems. Gesine joined the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in 2023.