Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)

June 2024

General News

Past Events

Upcoming Events

People 

Publications  

 

General News

Thomas Stocker is given emeritus status

Thomas Stocker, the long-serving President of the Oeschger Centre, is retiring and thus also relinquishing his position at the head of the OCCR. In an interview published in the University of Bern’s online journal UniAKTUELL, he looks back on his extraordinary career. Read the interview entitled “At an international level, climate research in Bern is a brand”.

Change at the top of the OCCR

The resignation of Thomas Stocker as President of the Oeschger Centre as of 1 August 2024 has led to changes at the top of the OCCR. The previous Vice President Karin Ingold (Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance group) becomes President and Stefan Brönniman (Climatology group) is appointed as the new Vice President.

OCCR Advisory Board appointed

The OCCR has established a Scientific Advisory Board SAB consisting of four internationally leading experts from different fields representing the broad spectrum of climate and climate impact research conducted at the OCCR. The SAB is explicitly not perceived as a review panel but rather as a board that provides thought-provoking advice, that inspires and challenges our group leaders and that is available for critical consideration of our research and education vision. The SAB thus makes a critical contribution to exploring pathways and formulating recommendations for a sustained and successful development of the OCCR. A 2-days SAB meeting is planned for summer 2025 (tba).

The members of the Advisory Board are:
Valérie Masson-Delmotte; IPSL Paris (Paleoclimate, Earth System Science)
Gabi Hegerl; U Edinburgh (Climate, Atmosphere, Attribution, Extremes)
Wolfgang Cramer; CNRS Aix-en-Provence (Biological Impacts, Ecology)
Sam Fankhauser; U Oxford & Smiths School (formerly Grantham Institute London and LSE) (Economics, Social Sciences)

New OCCR Research Clusters: OCCR Retreat I and II

The leaders of the 40 OCCR research groups met for two retreats in April and May 2024 to discuss and reshape priority research areas of the OCCR 2026 and beyond, i.e. to prepare for the new OCCR Grant Agreement 2026-2029. These new Clusters serve three purposes: (i) Mirror current/future OCCR research (excellence); (ii) Facilitate innovative collaboration across disciplines and faculties (i.e. ‘justifying’ the existence of the OCCR) and, (iii) Make OCCR Research visible (UniBe, nationally, internationally). It was decided that six new thematic clusters and two platforms (technology, methods) will be established; this is still work in progress and all Cluster titles are working titles:

Clusters

  • Earth System Processes
  • Extremes, Tipping Points and (managing) Risks
  • Climate Justice
  • Climate, Health and Cities
  • Biodiversity, Ecosystem Health
  • Societal Transition & Resilience

Platforms

  • Earth System and Climate Modeling
  • (Climate) Data Science and Analysis

In summer and fall 2024, cluster workshops will be held to scope the science and profile, and to develop a roadmap with activities.

Endowed Mobiliar Chair (Professor) in Climate Impacts on Public Health

A brief update: the Mobiliar Chair in Climate Impacts on Public Health is on its home stretch. Interviews with four candidates of the short list were held on 22 April 2024; in the following and after external review, the committee agreed on a ranked list of two candidates. This list passed the Medical Faculty earlier in June and is now at the UL. We anticipate that the outcome will be communicated in August/September 2024 and the position will be filled by the beginning of 2025.

Funding for the Graduate School renewed 2025-2028

The UniBE base funding for the Graduate School of Climate Sciences has been renewed for the period 2025-2028 (4 years). It amounts to CHF 292'000 pa and is slightly increased compared with the current funding. Please note that the  base funding directly depends on the number of PhD students enrolled and the number of graduations. The funding is used to run the Summer Schools and the Young Researchers Meetings, to run the MSc Climate Sciences program and to support supervision of Climate Sciences students (MSc and PhD).

New Horizon Europe project

Various OCCR members are part of the new Horizon Europe consortium project “Past to Future”. It brings together 24 partner organizations and is supported by the EU with 15 million Euro. The project’s overarching goal is to create a framework that uses new knowledge of past climatic conditions. It aims to project future climate change on spatio-temporal scales which are relevant for societies, ecosystems, and the planet as a whole. Moreover the project aims to better understand and anticipate the main climatic and societal impacts of the ongoing climate crisis. OCCR researchers involved in “Past to Future” are Frerk Pöppelmeier, Christoph Raible, Johannes Sutter, Thomas Stocker (Earth System Modelling - Climate Dynamics and Atmospheric Dynamics groups) as well as Albert Hafner and Caroline Heitz (Prehistoric Archeology group).

Strong interest in new tool

A press release on a new tool developed at the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks met with great interest. It is called ‘Risk Sensitivity - damaging floods in times of climate change’ and shows, among other things, how damage in a floodplain may change with climate-induced increases of discharge. The online service is intended to support experts in prevention. Many major Swiss media outlets have reported on the new tool, from the NZZ ("An diesen Flüssen wird es in der Schweiz teuer und gefährlich") to the French-speaking Swiss public broadcaster RTS ("Les crues pourraient se multiplier en Suisse ces prochaines années"). Read the article on the new tool in uniAKTUELL.

Scientific drilling campaign at Lake Nam Co in Tibet

A team from the Sedimentary Geochemistry group has just returned from a four-week field trip to Lake Nam Co in Tibet at an altitude of about 4700 meters. The team consisted of Hendrik Vogel (PI), Aliisa Laakkonen (PhD student) and Camille Thomas (Senior researcher). As part of the Sinergia project DIGESTED, the OCCR team, together with collaborators from Lausanne, EAWAG and the Uni Greifswald, Germany, has been participating in scientific drilling under the umbrella of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (NamCore project) to reconstruct climate and the interactions between the biosphere and geosphere in the past. Drilling was a great success and produced sedimentary records spanning the last glacial-interglacial cycles on the world’s ‘Third Pole’, the Tibetan Plateau.

Tibet

Bernometer weather app warns of heat

bernometer app

Nils Tinner, a Master's student with the Climatolgy group is making the temperature data obtained in the Urban Climate Bern project available to the public in a new tool. The Bernometer is a weather app and a website designed to help the people of Bern cope with heatwaves.

Using a digital city map, specific information can be called up for all locations in the city - from past and current temperatures to forecasts for the next five days with the expected maximum and minimum values. At temperatures above 30 °C during the day (heat day) and 20 °C at night (tropical night), the "Bernometer" sounds the alarm and provides specific advice on how to cope better with the heat. The app will be launched on 28 June.

Past Events

Making contacts at the Apéro Series

Apéro Series

The spring edition of the Apéro Series for young members of the OCCR was organised on 24 May by the research groups of the Climate and Environmental Physics division of the Physics Institute. As always at the Apéro Series, the organisers gave short presentations on their research projects at the well-attended event. This was followed by drinks and snacks.

The next edition will take place in autumn. Who would like to present their work to other doctoral students? (Please contact kaspar.meuli@unibe.ch)

The sponge city: an innovative response to future challenges

Sponge city

The traditional spring event of the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks took place on 29 May in the form of an excursion about the sponge city. The event, which was very well attended, led through the Schosshalde neighbourhood in Bern. It was entitled "The sponge city: an innovative response to current and future challenges". The excursion illustrated the necessity of sponge city measures and explained the concept and the way it works.

The sponge city counteracts phenomena such as hot summers, dry spells and heavy rainfall, which we will have to deal with more and more because of climate change. The concept is based on adapting water management and infrastructure in urban areas. Rainwater is thus no longer seen as a problematic burden, but as a useful resource.

Global Research Council visits OCCR

On the occasion of its annual meeting, the Global Research Council GRC, the organization of research funding agencies around the world, has made a site visit at the OCCR and PAGES on Friday 31 May 2024. Representatives from about 12 countries were interested in learning how the OCCR carries out interdisciplinary climate and climate impact research across faculties, and how the Global Research Network Past Global Changes PAGES operates. PAGES is hosted at the OCCR. In this context, one of the major points of discussion was how to secure sustained funding of Global Research Network. The introduction to the OCCR and PAGES was delivered by Martin Grosjean, Director OCCR and PAGES Co-Chair; Hubertus Fischer provided a lab tour to the ice core facility at KUP; Charlotte Blattner and Christoph Raible showcased the ECHR Third Party Intervention to the proceedings of the Klimaseniorinnen vs Switzerland, a document that emerged through the collaboration of 10 professors from 7 different institutes of the OCCR.

Young Researchers Meeting 2024

Hotel Meielisalp in Leissigen

This year's Young Researchers Meeting took place on 6 and 7 June at the Hotel Meielisalp in Leissigen on Lake Thun. The meeting was entitled ‘Scientific Excellence in Climate Sciences’. The lively event was attended by around 30 PhDs and Postdocs, who are members of the OCCR but also came from various institutes of the ETH, the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva and Eawag.

In presentations and discussions, the YRM addressed, among other things, how the replicability crisis in science, combined with ever more powerful information and communication technology ICT, is about to revolutionise the quality standards for scientific work.

1st Swiss Ocean Day

On 20 June, the Swiss ocean community gathered at the University of Bern for the 1st Swiss Ocean Day, organized by the Oeschger Center and the Swiss Commission of Oceanography and Limnology. The event brought together over 150 scientists from different Swiss universities, NGO/IGO representatives, and government officials. This networking event featured presentations, discussions and updates on Swiss-led ocean science and activities. During the open forum, 36 flash talks were presented on different topics including physical oceanography, biogeochemical oceanography, biological oceanography, ocean conservation and other areas of interest. The organizers were thrilled with the success of the inaugural edition of the Swiss Ocean Day and the positive feedback from the community has sparked plans for another event in 2025.

Swiss Ocean Day

Upcoming Events

Save the dates: OCCR Plenaries, YRM 2025, Nacht der Forschung

The next OCCR Plenary Meetings will take place on 10 September 2024 (14-17 h) and 10 February 2025 (14-17 h). The Young Researchers Meeting 2025 is scheduled for 5 – 6 June. And on 6 September the “Nacht der Forschung” (Science Night) will take place at the University of Bern.

Beating the Heat

On 11 September 2024, the conference “Beating the Heat” on urban climate and its impacts will take place in Bern. The conference is situated in the field of urban climatology and related disciplines and offers the opportunity to present results from past and ongoing research projects as well as practical applications in planning and implementation. The conference also aims to provide a platform for networking and exchange among the Swiss research, service and implementation community concerned with the diverse interactions between cities, climate (change) and human health.
Conference website.

Storm workshop

The 10th Workshop on European Storms will take place in Bern from 
5 - 7 February 2025. Details will be made available later. Save the date!

People

Frerk Pöppelmeier appointed as an Assistant Professor Tenure Track

Frerk Pöppelmeier

Frerk Pöppelmeier (Earth System Modelling – Climate Dynamics group) has been appointed by the Executive Board of the University of Bern as an Assistant Prof Tenure Track of climate and environmental physics. He succeeds Fortunat Joos, who will retire in summer 2024. Frerk is an isotope geochemist and paleoceanographer and has joined the University of Bern in 2020 as a Postdoc. He combines direct reconstructions from marine sediments with model simulations to gain further insight into the driving processes for the variability in ocean circulation and climate in general.

Johannes Sutter becomes research group leader

Johannes Sutter

Johannes Sutter (previously Earth System Modelling - Climate Dynamics group) has been given his own research group, called the Ice Sheet Dynamics group. The group is funded by an SNSF Starting Grant (2023 - 2028), which Johannes received for his project CHARIBDIS (Charting Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution via the ice sheet's internal stratigraphy). CHARIBDIS will address a key research challenge which was prominently highlighted in the latest assessment report of the IPCC, namely the reduction of the large uncertainties in model-based projections of Antarctic sea level contributions.

To achieve this, a novel methodology to calibrate ice sheet models will be developed using geophysical observations of the internal layering of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Franziska Aemisegger joins the climatology team at the OCCR

Franziska Aemisegger

Franziska Aemisegger has been awarded an SNSF Starting Grant and will join the Institute of Geography with her project on the dynamics of the atmospheric water cycle. Given the interconnected nature of the water cycle with other Earth system components, she is collaborating with experts from meteorology, hydrology, snow physics, remote sensing and chemistry. Her team's work serves as the basis for reliable forecasts of the rapid changes in the water cycle with global warming.

Stan Schouten wins photo award

Stan Schouten wins photo award

Stan Schouten, PhD student with the Paleolimnology group, is one of three winners of the EGU2024 photo competition. His picture shows a small cabin which stands precariously on a relic of the Gronfjordbreen glacier, Svalbard. In his comment Stan writes: “As with many other glaciers, the Gronfjordbreen is melting quickly in our changing world. 
With rising waters in its proglacial lake, the moraine underneath the cabin collapsed soon after the cabins’ completion. The tale of the fallen cabin is not one of despair, but a stark message etched in the relentless landscape. Nature’s timetable is not ours to dictate, and the consequences of underestimating the speed at which our climate is changing can be swift and unforgiving. It is a comic reminder of humanity’s struggle to grasp the true pace of a changing planet. This picture was taken during a geology fieldwork course at UNIS, Svalbard.

Patrick Bigler and Benedikt Janzen receive Young Economist Award

Patrick Bigler and Benedikt Janzen

At the annual congress of the Swiss Society for Economics and Statistics the SSES Young Economist Award was presented to Patrick Bigler and Benedikt Janzen (both former PhDs with the Climate Economics: Energy, Technological Change and International Cooperation group) for their paper “Green spills: Peer effects in pro-environmental behaviors”. The SSES Young Economist Award is granted on every Annual Congress of the Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES) since 2007.

The prize (CHF 2'000) is awarded for the best paper where all co-authors are less than 33 years old.

Isabelle Stadelmann and Doina Radulescu on the energy transition

Isabelle Stadelmann and Doina Radulescu

Isabelle Stadelmann (Comparative Politics group) and Doina Radulescu (Climate Economics: Energy, Technological Change and International Cooperation group) have their say in the online magazine uniAktuell of the University of Bern. Together with Cornelia Mellenberger, CEO of Energie Wasser Bern, they discussed whether the energy transition can be achieved by 2050 in the face of resistance to concrete renewable energy projects.

Olivia Romppainen on hail damage

Olivia Romppainen (Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research) was featured in detail in a report on climate change and hail damage in the news programme ‘Rendez-vous am Mittag’ on Swiss public radio (srf1). Listen to the programme.

Doina Radulescu speaks at Spirit of Bern

Doina Radulescu (Climate Economics: Energy, Technological Change and International Cooperation group) was one of the speakers at the Spirit of Bern event, which promotes dialogue between business, science and politics. The theme of this year's event was Switzerland's energy future. In her presentation, Doina addressed the contribution of science and spoke about the so-called energy trilemma (ensuring a secure, affordable and sustainable supply).

Researchers who have recently joined the OCCR:

Madushika Sewwandi Athukorala Arachchige is a new PhD with the Marine biogeochemistry and pollutants group. She did a Master’s of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences at the Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka with a thesis entitled "Microplastics-bound transport of pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and toxic trace metals in water". The working title of her PhD thesis is: Modeling of the marine biological carbon cycle under global warming.

Tamara Baumgartner is a new Scientific / Technical staff member with the Agriculture, Water and Climate Change group. She did a Master’s in Environmental Engineering and Science with a minor in Data Science at EPFL Lausanne. Her thesis was entitled: “Trends of ERA5 atmospheric climate variables in the Arctic”.

Julien Bodart is a new Postdoc with the Earth System Modelling – Climate Dynamics group. He gained his PhD at the University of Edinburgh reconstructing the history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. During his PostDoc, Julien will unlock Antarctic regions characterized by dynamic ice flow in an observational data driven approach combined with ice flow modelling.

Carlota Corbella is a new PhD with the Climatology group. She did a Master’s in Atmospheric Sciences at ETH-Zürich with a thesis entitled "Competing Effects of Global Warming, Aerosols, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation on Surface Solar Radiation in the Continental United States as Represented in CMIP6 Historical Simulations". Her research focuses on the relationship between internal climate variability and extreme weather events through the assimilation of historical data into climate models. The working title of PhD thesis is: "Decadal weather variability in Europe and its links with the tropics".

Jonathan Vicente dos Santos Ferreira is a new PhD with the Climate Change and Health group. He did a Master’s in Public Health at the University of São Paulo, Brasil with a thesis entitled "The Influence of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Health Workers in the Hospital and ICU Context." His research focuses on investigating the psychological consequences of extreme weather events and climate-related hazards to understand the effects of climate change on mental health.

Gabriela Grisel Espejo Gutierrez is a new PhD with the Geomorphology, Natural Hazards and Risk Research group. She did a Master’s in Climate Science at the University of Bern with a thesis entitled "Impact-based Forecast for Critical Infrastructure during Tropical Cyclones". Her research focuses on developing a user-targeted and impact-based early warning system building upon the groundwork established by the Flood Dynamics tool of the Mobiliar Lab. The title of her PhD thesis is: "Impact-based flood early warning systems".

Davide Martino is a new Postdoc with the Environmental History and Historical Climatology group. He gained his PhD in History at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, UK with a thesis on “Hydraulic philosophy in early modern European cities”. His research interests are in the uses, knowledge and infrastructure of water in the early modern period as well as in environmental history of the early modern world. He is also interested in urban history and historical cartography.

Trang Nguyen is a new Postdoc with the Earth System Modelling - Atmospheric Dynamics group. She holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, where her research concentrated on compiling emission inventories and air quality modeling for cities. She then worked in postdoctoral position at EAWAG and EMPA in Zurich where she was responsible for preparing high-resolution traffic emission inventories for Zurich to be used in air quality models.

Lara Oxley is a new PhD with the Geocomputation and Earth Observation group. She did a Master's in Climate Sciences at the University of Bern with a thesis entitled “Impacts of Drought on Plant-Herbivore Interactions”. Her current research focuses on the impacts of the thawing permafrost in the arctic. The title of her PhD is: “The Future Pan-Arctic Vegetation Response to Permafrost Thaw and Nitrogen Release”.

Conall Ruth is a new PhD with the Climatology group. He did a Master’s in Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich with a thesis entitled “Evapotranspiration at the Rietholzbach: Re-evaluating the lysimeter data record”. He then worked for three years in the Irish meteorological service in the areas of climate monitoring and weather forecasting. He has also worked as a researcher in energy management in Dundalk Institute of Technology. His research focus is on reconstructing daily European weather across recent centuries and analysing its variability and extremes. This involves the use of machine learning techniques for data estimation and testing.

Margaret Ryan is a new PhD with the Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research. She did a Master’s in Applied Statistics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland with a thesis entitled "A Comparative Analysis of MCMC Sampling Methods for Bayesian Inference". Her current research focus is on integrating diverse datasets to develop advanced hail products for Switzerland. The title of her PhD thesis his: “Multi-data hail products for Switzerland”. 

Apolline Saucy is a new Postdoc with the Climate Change and Health group. She did a PhD in Epidemiology at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel. Its title was: “Triggering effects of night-time aircraft noise on cardiovascular mortality: a case-crossover study in Switzerland”. Her research focuses on addressing chronic diseases through data-driven approaches.

Pierre Testorf is a new PhD with the Earth System Modelling – Climate Dynamics group. He obtained his MSc from the University of Hamburg working at the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology for his Master’s project. Pierre will investigate and recon-struct the response of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during Dansgaard-Oeschger Events in the framework of the Horizon Europe ClimTip project.

Firdewsa Zukanovic is a new PhD with the Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research. She did a Master’s in Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich with a thesis entitled "Implementation of a Precipitation Type Diagnostic for a Mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction Model". The working title of her PhD thesis is: "Impact-oriented warnings of surface water flow in Switzerland".

A warm welcome to all of you!

Recent journal publications by OCCR members

See all the publications by OCCR members.