top of page

As a researcher...

As a researcher, I am fascinated by questions and the unknown. Yes, for me, being a researcher probably means above all an inner attitude of appreciative curiosity towards reality.

 

Some situations require quickly taking a clear opinion or position. Others require not asking many questions, but acting quickly or changing things. The essence of research, for me, lies in not being led astray into a hasty interpretation, but rather in taking the time to explore more deeply what there is to perceive and understand before forming an opinion. In many ways, it is a privilege to linger long and with radical openness on questions such as "What is really happening here?", "What exactly am I perceiving here?", or "What else could be happening here that I might not yet be aware of?"

 

This attitude has led me through very different fields of research over the years - from experimental solid-state physics to climate technologies and transdisciplinary methods, to psychodynamics and questions of social transformation.

Only in retrospect do I realize that these topics were less separate areas of research for me than different stages in an ongoing search process.

The following sections offer insights into this search process. Each topic represents a question that occupied me for a long time – and whose effects are still felt today.

Tree P1080032).jpeg
Anker 1
Transdisciplinarity

Transdisciplinary methods & processes

TD Symbol_edited.jpg

What does collaboration require to truly generate insights and effective action from different perspectives?

Since my first lectures in astrophysics with Prof. Erwin Sedlmayr, I have been fascinated by the idea of considering phenomena from multiple perspectives simultaneously. At the IASS, I discovered the academic concepts and languages for such research.

Transdisciplinarity (TD) is dedicated to connecting and integrating diverse forms of knowledge. On the one hand, this involves transcending the boundaries of established disciplines and methods. On the other hand, TD takes concrete societal problems as its starting point and understands research as a collaborative process between academic and non-academic perspectives on equal footing. In this way, transdisciplinary research aims to generate the most multifaceted and, at the same time, socially relevant and effective understanding possible.

Furthermore, transformative research commits itself not only to observing, but also to actively contributing to the solution of societal challenges through research.

I am interested in how such transdisciplinary processes can be designed effectively, particularly through the development of collaborative communication structures and practices.

For further reading:
 

  • FONA Forum 2024: A co-creative approach to transformation. Bernert, P., Arends, L., Beyers, F., Lange, U., Lawrence, MG, Martin, L., Sasse, R., Schönwitz-Palm, T., & Bruhn, T. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 33(4), 409-410. (2024)
    DOI:10.14512/gaia.33.4.13.
     

  • Safe Spaces in Unsafe Environments – Experiences from COP26 about hosting inclusive spaces for deep encounters and reflection. Bruhn, T., Schäpke, N., Fraude, C., Bendlin, L., Dirar, A., Fang, M., Finn, K., Goodman, M., Simon, L., Kunkel, S., Mandal, S., Mangondo, N., Mar, KA, Peringer, C., Schroeder, H., Siegel, J., Tronchon, J., Tsuyuki-Tomlinson, C., Virah-Sawmy, M., Wamsler, C., Lawrence, MG In Barbara Regeer, Klaassen Pim, and Jacqueline Broerse (Eds.) Transdisciplinarity for Transformation: Insights and Tools for Navigating Complex Societal Challenges, Springer (2024)
    DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-60974-9_7.
     

  • Grounded action design – Transdisciplinary co-creation for better transformative processes. Bruhn, T. , Herberg, J., Molinengo, G., Oppold, D., Stasiak, D., & Nanz, P. (2019). Frameworks for transdisciplinary research #9. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 28(4), 336-336.
    DOI:10.14512/gaia.28.4.3.

Co-Creation & Policy Advice

Psychodynamics & Leadership

Why do collaboration and transformation often fail not due to a lack of knowledge, but due to human dynamics? And what forms of leadership enable cooperation without denying responsibility or power?

 

As a researcher and facilitator, my impression was that many work processes are not characterized by a lack of relevant knowledge or available skills. Rather, people are often stuck due to an atmosphere of mistrust, unhealthy power dynamics, personal animosity, or simply unclear roles and the resulting uncertainty, overload, and stress.

That's how it came about that I started a new course of study in the middle of my professional life and turned my attention to the topic of psychodynamics. I still find the role of power and leadership in the context of collaborative dynamics particularly fascinating – as a consultant and facilitator as well as a researcher.

What framework conditions and methods support a constructive dynamic, especially in the face of strong power imbalances or competing leadership claims?

What role can or must established leadership play in this? And how can leadership simultaneously be part of the transformation and open up space for change without ignoring existing responsibilities?

In matters such as these, the psychodynamic perspective has become extremely valuable to me and shapes the way I look at the design of transdisciplinary processes or transformative spaces.

Tree California.jpg

For further reading:
 

  • On psychosocial group dynamics during multilateral conference negotiations: experiences from COP28 . Dommnich, JJR, & Bruhn, T. (2024). Group, interaction, organization. Journal of Applied Organizational Psychology: GIO.
    DOI:10.1007/s11612-024-00772-2.
     

  • How Can Transformative Sustainability Research Benefit From Integrating Insights From Psychology? Bruhn, T. Frontiers in Psychology, 12: 676989. (2021)
    DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.676989
     

  • How personalities and participant interactions shape co-creative transdisciplinary processes . T. Bruhn.   In Hoggett and Lertzman “Behavior Change from the Inside Out: applications of psychosocial ideas to sustainability” Anglia Ruskin University Press Cambridge (2017)

Mindsets & Sustainability

Mindsets & Sustainability

AMA Network.jpg

What internal changes support societal transformation?

 

When I started at the IASS in 2012, it seemed to me that the concerns of socio-ecological transformation and sustainability were largely considered separately from questions about human ways of thinking or consciousness development in general. However, in my understanding, systemic change also requires the conscious integration of mindsets, for example as – as Donella Meadows called it – a " deep leverage point of change ".

Following this impulse, I was given the opportunity at the IASS to establish and lead the research group AMA ( A Mindset for the Anthropocene ). Over the years, this group, with its many contributors, developed a conceptual understanding and a practical process architecture for a relational approach to sustainability, practiced, for example, in so-called "Transformation Labs." The platform www.ama-project.org was created during this time and continues to provide access to this field and networking opportunities.

The topic of "mindsets" or "inner transformation" is now very well established in the context of sustainability, and the AMA project has transitioned into the research group "Transformative Spaces & Mindsets." The topic of mindsets therefore remains very close to my heart, especially as part of my psychodynamic research and the design of transformative communication formats.

For further reading:
 

  • Growing from "sustainability inside-out" into the emergence of a relational approach to transformation. The story of the project "A Mindset for the Anthropocene" (AMA). Bruhn, T., & Lawrence, MG. In J. Blank, C. Bergmüller-Hauptmann, & S. Sälzle (Eds.), Transformational claims in research and education: Concepts, projects, empirical perspectives (pp. 297-313). Münster: Waxmann. (2023).
    DOI: 10.25656/01:28069
     

  • Interactive network visualization on the integration of mindsets and sustainability - Creating conditions for emergence through a relational narrative. Bruhn, T., Meier, S. & Lawrence, MG. Innovation: The European Journal for Social Science research. 36(1), 71-84. (2022)
    DOI: doi:10.1080/13511610.2022.2101987.
     

  • Enabling new mindsets and transformative skills for negotiating and activating climate action. Lessons from UNFCCC conferences of the parties. Wamsler, C., Schäpke, N., Fraude, C., Stasiak, D., Bruhn, T., Lawrence, MG, Schroeder, H., & Mundaca, L. (2020). Environmental Science and Policy, 112, 227-235

Co-Creation & Policy Advice

Co-creation @ UNFCCC COPs

What communication spaces does global cooperation need under high pressure?

 

Complex challenges often require the collaboration of diverse actors, perspectives, and resources. Arenas for multi-stakeholder processes are therefore becoming increasingly important, often organized at large international gatherings such as the UNFCCC Climate Conferences (COPs).

Thanks to the initiative of my colleague Carolin Fraude and the collaboration of several research groups, we were able to offer a space within the Blue Zone of the UNFCCC COPs for several years, where we experimented with various formats and methods of reflection and co-creation. We wanted to better understand the communication culture of this global gathering and discover whether and how it offered potential for the use of innovative communication processes.

 

The impressions and insights gained from this research were extremely valuable and have led to various further projects within and beyond the UNFCCC context.

And I think I can safely say: No moderation or facilitation has ever been as challenging as at the UN climate conferences :-)...

Facilitation CCRDS3.JPG

For further reading:
 

Technologies

Climate technologies

Tree IMG_4292).jpeg

How can technological innovations be shaped responsibly within society?

 

At the IASS Potsdam, I spent several years researching the potential social and environmental impacts of various technological proposals to address global warming. This included so-called CCU technologies for recycling and utilizing CO2 as a raw material. I also researched the potential consequences of so-called geo- or climate engineering approaches.

While my background in physics helped me understand the relevant technical aspects of these topics, my primary interest lay in how societal perspectives could be integrated early on to gain a more complex understanding of these approaches. Given the theoretically possible impacts of these technologies on the entire Earth system, this research ultimately led me ever deeper into ethical and philosophical-spiritual questions concerning the human-nature relationship, which have significantly shaped my awareness and understanding of transdisciplinarity and sustainability.

For further reading:
 

  • The human being as pilot of spaceship Earth? – Reflections on the Anthropocene, Geoengineering and Climate Change.   T. Bruhn. Dossier “The Anthropocene”. German Center for Political Education (2018)
     

  • Corporateization of the climate? Innovation, intellectual property rights, and patents for climate change mitigation . K. Raiser, H. Naims, T. Bruhn . Energy Research & Social Science 27 1–8 (2017)
     

  • From the Garden of Eden to Eden's Gardener? – Experiences from dialogues with religious perspectives on climate engineering and potential implications for transdisciplinarity . T. Bruhn , S. Schäfer, MG Lawrence.   In Clingerman & O'Brien “Calming the Storm – Religious perspectives on Climate Engineering” (2017)
     

  • CO2 as an asset – Challenges and Potentials for Society . B. Olfe-Kräutlein, H. Naims, T. Bruhn, AM Lorente Lafuente . IASS Study 11/2016; DOI: 10.2312/iass.2016.025
     

  • Separating the debate on CO2 utilization from carbon capture and storage . T. Bruhn, H. Naims, B. Olfe-Kräutlein. Environmental Science & Policy 60 38–43 (2016)
     

  • 7 Question on Climate Engineering. M. Latif and T. Bruhn (coordinating authors): Hamburg, German Association to the Club of Rome & ThinkTank30. (2013)

Physics

Self-organization on nanomaterials

How do molecules on semiconductors organize themselves into ordered structures?

 

My scientific roots lie in physics, more precisely in experimental solid-state physics. At the beginning of my studies, I was fascinated by astrophysics. Later, I turned my attention to semiconductor nanomaterials. During my doctoral studies at the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS) and the Technical University of Berlin, I focused on experimental research in ultra-high vacuum on the self-assembly of organic molecules such as benzene and pyrrole on semiconductor surfaces like gallium arsenide.

This work later led me to research stays in Rome, at the University of Tor Vergata, and in Marseille with Prof. Guy LeLay at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Nanoscience (CiNaM).

Even though all of this lies a long time ago, this fundamental research significantly shaped my thinking. The basic tenets of my understanding of self-organization and the challenges of inter- and transdisciplinarity stem from this period, and I am grateful to have experienced a research phase of such depth.

 

If you are curious about a bit more science, then here is the story behind some of my most important experiences in semiconductor physics.

Researcher Labor2_edited.jpg

Long, long ago... (Photo probably taken around 2009).
The good old UHV laboratory of the Richter/Kneissl working group
at TU Berlin. They were truly valuable, formative years...

For further reading:
 

  • Electrophilic surface sites as precondition for the chemisorption of pyrrole on GaAs(001) surfaces. T. Bruhn, B.O. Fimland, N. Esser, P. Vogt, Journal of Chemical Physics 142, 101903; DOI: 10.1063/1.4906117 (2015)
     

  • Synthesis and electrical conductivity of multilayer silicene. P. Vogt, P. Capoid, M. Berthe, A. Resta, P. De Padova, T. Bruhn, G. Le Lay, B. Grandidier. Applied Physics Letters 104, 021602 (2014)
     

  • STM analysis of defects at the GaAs(001)-c(4x4) surface. T. Bruhn, B.O. Fimland, N. Esser, P. Vogt. Surface Science 617, 162 
     

  • The quasiparticle band dispersion in epitaxial multilayer silicene. P. De Padova, P. Vogt, J. Avila, A. Resta, I. Rasado-Colambo, C. Ottaviani, B. Olivieri, T. Bruhn, P. Vogt, M.C.Asensio, G. Le Lay. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 25, 382202
     

  • Atomic structures of Silicene Layers on Ag(111): Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy Observations. A. Resta, T. Leoni, C. Barth, A. Ranguis, C. Becker, T. Bruhn, P. Vogt, G. Le Lay. Scientific Reports 3, 2399 (2013)
     

  • Evidence of Dirac fermions in multilayer silicene. P. De Padova, P. Vogt, A. Resta, J. Avila, I. Razado-Colambo, C. Quaresima, C. Ottaviani, B. Olivieri, T. Bruhn, T. Hirahara, T. Shirai, S. Hasegawa, M. C. Asensio, G. Le Lay. Applied Physics Letters 102, 163106 (2013)
     

  • Epitaxial Silicene: Can it be strongly strained? G. Le Lay, P. De Padova, A. Resta, T. Bruhn, P. Vogt. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 45, 392001 (2012)
     

  • Pyrrole adsorption on GaAs(001)-c(4x4): The role of surface defects. T. Bruhn, B.O. Fimland, N. Esser, P. Vogt. Physical Review B. 85, 075322 (2012)
     

  • In-situ optical spectroscopy and electronic properties of pyrrole submonolayers on Ga-rich GaAs(001). T. Bruhn, M. Ewald, B.O. Fimland, M. Kneissl, N. Esser, P. Vogt, Journal of Nanoparticle Research 13, 5847 (2011)
     

  • Adsorbate-induced modification of the surface electronic structure at GaAs(001) surfaces. T. Bruhn, B.O. Fimland, M. Kneissl, N. Esser, P. Vogt, Physical Review B 83(8), 045307 (2011), 

"Knowledge begins with sensation, with experience,
and not with the study of Latin.
I don't know any Latin, and I'm telling you:
Knowledge begins with love."
 

Leonardo Da Vinci

imprint

Data protection

bottom of page