Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Martin Weibelzahl is provisional head of a department at the Research Center Finance & Information Management (FIM) and the Project Group Business and Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT). Dr. Weibelzahl also serves as a lecturer at the University of Bayreuth and the University of Augsburg.

One major focus of Dr. Weibelzahl’s research is in the field of digital energy. Here, he investigates how our economy and society can be decarbonized in a sustainable, secure and affordable way using various (digital) technologies. With a continuously increasing share of renewable energies and a gradual shutdown of conventional power plants, the supply of electricity is becoming more and more volatile due to uncertain weather conditions. This yields increasing deviations between the electricity produced and the electricity consumed and presents the electricity system with major challenges, including the prevention of power outages. As the design of future markets will play a key role in a successful energy transition, Dr. Weibelzahl also analyses how corresponding market structures can ensure sufficient flexibility to balance demand and supply in low-carbon energy systems.

In addition, Dr. Weibelzahl is generally concerned with the development of decision support systems for companies and public decision makers. Here, Dr. Weibelzahl mainly uses methods from the field of operations research, analytics, and mathematical optimization. Applications of his decision support systems can be found in energy markets, in the aviation industry, and in church politics.

In the above research fields, Dr. Weibelzahl is involved in various national and international research projects. Close cooperation exists, for example, with the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg), the University of Dundee (Scotland), the University of Southampton (England) or the Norwegian School of Economics (Norway). Dr. Weibelzahl has published a number of articles in renowned international journals such as Annals of Operations Research, Energy Policy or European Journal of Operational Research. He also works as a reviewer for conferences and international journals such as Annals of Operations Research, Energy Economics or Energy Policy. Furthermore, he regularly gives lectures and is an organizer of various international workshops and symposia.

Dr. Weibelzahl completed his studies in the field of quantitative economics at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2011. He then began his doctorate at the Chair of Business Mathematics within the Elite Network of Bavaria, which he successfully completed in 2016. After his doctorate, Dr. Weibelzahl worked as a postdoctoral fellow at RWTH Aachen University in 2017 in the research areas of Discrete Optimization and Advanced Analytics. Since 2018, Dr. Weibelzahl has been working at FIM, first as postdoc and project manager, since 2020 as head of department.