DAAD-Prime-Programme
How do Sand and Dust Affect the Global Climate?
- von Dr. Alexandra Nießen
- 06.10.2026
How will the Earth’s climate change? How much sunshine, storms, rain or drought can we expect in the future? This is what Dr Leila Mahmoudi is researching. She is receiving support in two ways: academic support from Dr Eric Parteli of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and financial support from the PRIME funding programme run by the German Academic Exchange Service.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) runs the ‘Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience’ (PRIME) funding programme, which is aimed at exceptionally qualified international postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines and of any nationality. It supports their mobility by offering an 18-month post at a German university. The programme is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.
Dr Leila Mahmoudi (University of Tabriz, Iran) wishes to model the global climate in a simulation. To do so, she is using the dust emission model developed by Dr Eric Parteli of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). “How and where dust and sand are distributed in the environment and the atmosphere influences our climate,” says the UDE researcher. There is still little physical understanding of dust emissions. Put simply, Parteli’s model uses a computer to simulate how the wind carries tiny dust or sand particles from the ground and carries them into the atmosphere.
As a native of Iran, Mahmoudi is well acquainted with the problems of dust and drought caused by global warming in her home country. The DAAD Prime scholarship holder will be dividing her research stay on climate issues between the UDE and the University of Navarra (Spain). Why is that? “There, I can accelerate the UDE simulation using high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs). The University of Navarra is a leader in GPU simulation of granular media,” explains Dr Leila Mahmoudi. After her first three months at the UDE, she will spend a year conducting research in Spain and then return to the UDE for three months. “The combination of the two universities is ideal for my research.”
More Information:
Dr Eric Parteli, Faculty of Physics, ‘Multiscale Simulation for Earth Surface Processes’ research group, phone. +49 (0)203/37-9 4757, eric.parteli@uni-due.de
Dr Leila Mahmoudi, leila.mhdi@gmail.com
Editor: Dr. Alexandra Niessen, alexandra.niessen@uni-due.de