Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geotechnologies IEGScientific employee
Peter Achtziger-Zupančič received his Diploma of Engineering in Hydrogeology (MSc equivalent) from TU Berlin in 2010. He has extensive experience in hydraulic, hydro-mechanical, pneumatic, and tracer experiments in radioactive disposal research across Switzerland, France, and Germany (2008-2012).
From 2012 to 2017, Peter served as a research assistant and post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich. His PhD focused on analyzing large hydraulic data sets to understand the distribution of hydrogeological parameters in crystalline rock within the upper 2000m of the Earth's crust.
At Stanford University (2017-2019), he developed new methods for assessing and visualizing uncertainty in mining within the SCERF group. In 2019, Peter joined the Experimental Geophysics group at Ruhr-University Bochum, focusing on hard rock hydrogeology and hydro-mechanics.
In 2020, he became a member of the Department of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology at RWTH Aachen, where he conducted interdisciplinary research in hydromechanics (SPINE), seismology (FEAR), tunneling (PRECODE), geological modeling (GeoBlocks), instrument development (PoroPermFlow), and subsurface evaluation projects (ETEST, Low Seismic Lab Lusatia). During this time, he supervised multiple theses and co-published numerous papers.
Since 2024, Peter has been co-leading the growing Competence Center for Geomechanics and Geohazards at Fraunhofer IEG. He works on diverse topics including THM model parametrization and modelling, instrument development, nuclear waste disposal, and tunneling. Additionally, he works intensely on the emerging topic of natural hydrogen exploration and production.