Horst Langer

Horst Langer studied Geology and Geophysics, and received his Doctorate in Seismology at the University of Stuttgart (Germany). Since the early 1990’s he is living in Catania (Sicily) situated at the feet of Mt Etna, which is the Europe’s largest and most active volcano. Currently he holds a position as a Senior Researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology). During his education and professional work, Horst Langer faced a large variety of topics in Earth Science comprising Geology, Geophysics, but also disciplines which are at base of sciences, such as data analysis, signal processing, statistics and computer-based methods in general.

Mt Etna, which is close to the author's home, is just an example for a general situation, in which our planet is continuously monitored, with data acquisition being performed at high speed. Collected data cover long time spans and often the information regards various scientific fields; this brings along the need of a global understanding of the phenomena.

The daily experience has induced Horst Langer to study and develop automatic methods for data analyses. The difficulties during the first steps in this realm motivated the author to transmit his experience to a wide audience. Horst Langer also likes the role of “devil’s advocate”, bringing out "advantages and traps" one may encounter during the application of computer-based approaches.