Dr. Eva Börgens, a scientist in Section 1.3 Earth System Modelling at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, has been awarded the "Early Career Scientist Award" by the Division of Geodesy of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), recognizing outstanding scientific achievement in the early stages of her career.

The EGU organizes the General Assembly, the largest and most prominent event for European geosciences, held annually. It brings together geoscientists from all over the world, extending far beyond Europe. The assembly serves as a forum for researchers, especially early career scientists, to present their work and discuss ideas with experts from all areas of geosciences. The meeting sessions cover a broad range of topics, including hydrology and meteorology, remote sensing, natural hazards, geomorphology, tectonics, and volcanology. This year's EGU took place from May 3rd to 8th, 2026, as always in Vienna, and welcomed more than 22,000 participants. With around 20,000 contributions, 58% of which were from early career scientists, the General Assembly was a great success. Scientifically, the EGU is organized into Divisions.

The award is presented to Eva Börgens for her scientific work at the intersection of satellite data and its application. Her work particularly focuses on the evaluation and interpretation of satellite observations from the GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites. These data allow for the observation of changes in Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS), a crucial variable in the global water cycle. Using this data, Eva Börgens was able to, among other things, quantify the ongoing drought in Central Europe since 2018 (link to article). Furthermore, her work focuses on combining GRACE/GRACE-FO data with other satellite observations of the water cycle, primarily with satellite altimetry. In addition to applying the data, she is also actively involved in providing user-friendly GRACE/GRACE-FO datasets for a broader user community, both through the GFZ's own GravIS portal and within the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

About the Person

Eva Börgens enjoys high esteem within the scientific community as the leader of the "Spatial Leakage Mitigation in Satellite Gravimetry" working group of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and the working group "Global Terrestrial Water Storage Product: Error Assessment and Improvements" of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern. She is actively involved in scientific events. From 2020 to 2023, she was part of the Postdoc Representation of the GFZ and has been a member of the Scientific Council of the GFZ since 2023.

Eva Börgens studied Geodesy and Geoinformation at the University of Bonn from 2008 to 2014, completing a Bachelor's and Master's degree, including a study abroad period at the University of Calgary, Canada. From 2014 to 2018, Börgens completed her doctorate at the German Geodetic Research Institute of the Technical University of Munich on the topic of "Water Level Modelling of the Mekong River with Multi-Mission Altimetry", with a short stay at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Space). She has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at the GFZ in Section 1.3 Earth System Modelling since 2019.