WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF

Snow Enthusiasm + Fascination for Numerical Wizardry = Beppi

Nice that you found your way to my personal homepage! People call me Michael, Michi or simply Beppi.

I am a PhD Student at SLF Davos/EPFL studying avalanche-obstacle interaction. While others rely on explosives, I trigger avalanches with just a few lines of code using a numerical simulation framework based on the Material Point Method. But I'm not always just behind the screen! Sometimes you can also find my at our full-scale avalanche test site at Vallée de la Sionne where I am involved in the operation.

Any exciting ideas for collaborations or master thesis topics? Or just fancy a chat? Just drop me a line! I'm all ears for any exchange that adds a dash of excitement to our avalanche adventures.

Cheers to solving snow mysteries together!

Snow Avalanche Impact Simulation

Simulation of a snow avalanche recorded at the Vallée de la Sionne test site in December 2023. The simulation is based on a 3D Material Point Method (MPM) code incorporating an advanced elasto-plastic constitutive model.

Curriculum Vitae

  • 2016 - 2019:
    • Bachelor of Science - Civil and Environmental Engineering - University of Innsbruck
  • 2019 - 2022:
    • Master of Science - Civil Engineering - University of Innsbruck
  • 2021 - 2022:
    • Visiting Graduate Student - Structural Engineering - UC San Diego
  • 2022 - ongoing:
    • PhD - Computational Mechanics - EPFL

Projects

Publications