ATMOS Aerosol Research GmbH was founded by Chris Müller (CEO CMb.industries, Initiator of ATMOS Selfness Resort, Founding-Director Tabakfabrik Linz), Christoph Steindl (then CEO Catalysts) and Christian Federspiel (then CEO Catalysts). Unfortunately, Christoph Steindl passed away in 2021 after a serious illness. Still, or just because of that, behind ATMOS Aerosol Research stands a worldwide network of scientists, physicians and data analysts with locations in the USA, France, Romania, Austria, and many more. Depending on the project requirements, the multi-professional teams are assembled. They are all united by the will to become active in the face of alarming figures and to take action to secure the future of the planet.
(c) Sabine Kneidinger
For Elon Musk’s hyperloop they have been working on a cluster-technology that can process millions of data packets per second, and yet not using more energy than a hair dryer. Their high-performance computers process trillions of data per second for the space agencies NASA and ESA, and up to 3,000 people participate in their programming competitions. Catalysts – an Upper Austrian leading IT innovator. By developing custom software this company has grown to a size of more than 200 employees and is well established internationally. Christoph Steindl is its founder and CEO. He grew up in Ottenschlag and in 1990, after passing his school leaving examinations, he moved to Linz, where he studied mechatronics and obtained his doctorate.
Chris Müller is offspring of a long line of miners from the former brown coal field in the Hausruck region. This is why he likes to call his style of working as entrepeneur ‘urban mining’. He no longer extracts fossil fuels, as his ancestors did, but lays open new business areas of a rare quality. He is a créateur who creates, develops, manages, and unconventionally and successfully brings complex projects to life. Together with the architectural office Coop Himmelb(l)au he initiated the project ATMOS Selfness Resort, a project arising from the fact that his daughter was born with cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disorder. This is also the basis of the aersol measurements in cooperation with Catalysts.
Chris Müller is Director of Development, Design and Artistic Agendas at Tabakfabrik Linz. He is a qualified carpenter and staircase builder and as artistic director of the Theater Hausruck his productions twice received the Nestroy prize.
Chris Müller is offspring of a long line of miners from the former brown coal field in the Hausruck region. This is why he likes to call his style of working as entrepeneur ‘urban mining’. He no longer extracts fossil fuels, as his ancestors did, but lays open new business areas of a rare quality. He is a créateur who creates, develops, manages, and unconventionally and successfully brings complex projects to life. Together with the architectural office Coop Himmelb(l)au he initiated the project ATMOS Selfness Resort, a project arising from the fact that his daughter was born with cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disorder. This is also the basis of the aersol measurements in cooperation with Catalysts.
Chris Müller is Director of Development, Design and Artistic Agendas at Tabakfabrik Linz. He is a qualified carpenter and staircase builder and as artistic director of the Theater Hausruck his productions twice received the Nestroy prize.
Rolf Ziesche was born in Aachen and after completing his medical studies he worked at the Universitiy of Aachen, the University of Freiburg and in the Department of Pathology at Yale University. He did a fellowship at the Research Centre of the University of Basel (1992 to 1994) and then took on the position of assistant professor at the medical faculty of the University of Vienna (now the Medical University of Vienna). In 2003 he was appointed Assoc. Professor. Rolf Ziesche is a specialist for internal medicine and pulmonology at the University Department of Medicine II of the MedUni Vienna / Vienna General Hospital, Division of Pulmonology. His main research areas are chronic pulmonary inflammation and COPD. Rolf Ziesche is member of several national and international associations and has received numerous awards. He is also a member of the Ethics Committee of the MedUni Vienna and scientific reviewer for renowned specialist journals. 2017 he received the award ‘Inventor of the Year 2016’.
Since 2013 Priv.-Doz. Dr. Bernd Lamprecht is the Chairman of the Board of the Clinic for Pulmonary Medicine at the Kepler University Hospital Linz. In addition, he is scientific director of pneumological rehabilitation at the Enns Rehabilitation Clinic, visiting professor and coordinator of the Medical University of Vienna as well as secretary general of the Austrian Society of Pneumology. Born in Tyrol, he is also the author of over 140 publications and has been invited to more than twice as many lectures. He performs several functions in scientific societies, commissions and corporate bodies and is familiar with numerous specialist publications through his further activities as reviewer for several specialist journals and supervisor of dissertations. He has received numerous international awards and prizes for his work, most recently the Best Inspectee Award.
Since 2018 Dr. Bernd Lamprecht is part of the support committee of the ATMOS Selfness Resort. Read his statement here: PEOPLE FOR ATMOS
“With ATMOS Aerosol Research a way was found to make invisible influencing factors visible. Factors that affect both health and the economy. From my experience as an international investment banker and in my function as a board member of the Austrian Health Academy, I know that ‘good’ air is no longer a matter of course, but a much sought-after commodity. These aerosol measurements and new maps of air quality will bring relief to many people, will provide a basis for decision-making for the settlement of new companies and will hopefully initiate a rethinking of some countries.”
“Almost every day we receive reports from cities that are literally suffocating in polluted air. From many other parts of the world, however, these reports do not reach us at all. The numbers of lung diseases show that bad air is a global issue. I myself travel to Paris and numerous francophone countries for work. Whether Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire or France – the challenges are similar. ATMOS Aerosol Research offers a technology with which we can strategically meet this problem. And it is high time we do so. Together with a branch of ATMOS Aerosol Research in Paris, we want to extend this work to the French-speaking countries.”
David Fuertes started to work in 2008 in the atmospheric field in his hometown, Valladolid, Spain. Soon, he discovered his passion for atmospheric research and moved to Lille where he met Prof. Oleg Dubovik, a world renowned expert in remote sensing. The scientific team of the University of Lille and CNRS leaded by Prof. Oleg Dubovik developed “Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties” algorithm, shorten GRASP. GRASP is a retrieval algorithm that is able to infer nearly 50 parameters of aerosol and surface including particle size distribution, the spectral index of refraction, the degree of sphericity and absorption by measurements from satellites and ground stations. This information is crucial for the understanding of air quality, specifically the size of particles, their chemical composition, and concentration. Inspired by the potential benefits that the scientific idea of GRASP can bring to the society, David Fuertes in near collaboration with Oleg Dubovik and Catalysts became a co-founder and CEO of GRASP SAS, a company devoted to promote the research in remote sensing where they have established strong collaborations with largest spatial agencies of the world: NASA, ESA, EUMETSAT, JAXA and cnes.
Alois Flatz, who has brought Al Gore to European events several times, is a world-renowned expert on sustainable investments. He was involved in the founding of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the first and now the world’s leading stock index, which takes into account ecological and social criteria as well as economic ones. He also advises Generation Investment Management, founded and led by former US Vice President Al Gore, one of the world’s largest sustainability investors. Flatz is also involved in various start-ups.
“I evaluate companies according to their impact on the environment and what they can do to conserve the planet and its resources. It’s about the future of the planet and we have to use the new technologies to ensure it. Without air, there is no future. We know the importance of ATMOS as a global project. Through the clever combination of technology, data mining, multi-professional know-how, it has the very best prerequisites to fulfill its mission. And therefore I am very happy to have become a partner of ATMOS”.
