Hans-Peter PlagSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

In his lectures, he introduced students to the notion of sustainability and posed the topic of how Earth sciences might aid in the successful pursuit of sustainable development. He worked at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in Bidston, United Kingdom, for five months in 1995.

He was the head of the department "Global reference" at the Norwegian Mapping Authority's Geodetic Institute from 1997 to 2004, as well as a professor (mathematical models in geodesy) at the University of Oslo.

He was a research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, from 2004 to 2012, and a member of the Nevada Geodetic Laboratory and Nevada Seismological Laboratory.

From 2012 to 2013, he was the Director of the Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute (GCSRI) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he held the Chair on Global Change and Sustainability.

He joined ODU in June 2013 as Co-Director of the Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative and Professor of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Science. He is also a Visiting Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the United States.

Sustainability, global and climatic change, local to global sea level variations, Earth system dynamics, solid Earth geophysics, the rheology of the Earth's mantle and continuum mechanics, solid Earth deformation, space geodesy, and geodetic reference frames are among his primary areas of competence. He has given scientific advice to commercial firms and government bodies, especially on projected sea level rise.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), which is developing the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, is the focus of current professional activity (GEOSS).

He has chaired international programs and committees, organized numerous international workshops and conferences, often as chair of the program and/or organizing committees, edited many special issues and proceedings, and coordinated and edited two international and interdisciplinary community reports with up to 40 participants.

He has been a member of the Journal of Geodynamics Editorial Board since 1994, and Editor-in-Chief for geodesy for Physics and Chemistry of the Earth since 1996.