Every seventh building in Switzerland is at risk of flooding, and four out of five Swiss communities have been affected by floods within the past 40 years. At the OCCR, the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks aims to better inform authorities and the public about the risks associated with flooding. For this reason, it’s creating an interactive online database of images illustrating floods: the “Collective Flood Memory”.
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Oeschger Seminar Series
18 June 2018
The research station at Jungfraujoch where the OCCR group „Environmental Isotopes and Gases“ plays a prominent role is at the top of Europe – and not only because of its unique location. Within the framework of the European research infrastructure „Integrated Carbon Observation System" (ICOS), the laboratory in the heart of the Alps is now officially certified. ICOS provides data to better understand the global carbon cycle and how human activities affect it. The backbone of ICOS is a network of stations that have to meet the highest quality standards.
31 May 2018
Margret Möhl has served the NCCR and OCCR administration since 2001. To say good-bye, the staff of the OCCR Management Center raised the glasses on a staff excursion to Lake Biel. We wish her well in her retirement!
4 June 2018
Chantal Camenisch wants to go all the way up the university career ladder – thanks in part to her research stints abroad. The environmental historian currently lives as a guest researcher in Rouen, France, and will soon head to York in the north of England. Of course the academic nomad is bringing her young family along.
20 May 2018
On 26 June 2018, Michael White, Nature’s editor for climate science will talk at the OCCR on “Publishing with Nature: a climate science perspective”. The presentation takes place at 14:15 in room B5 at the ExWi building, Sidlerstr. 5, Bern. In his presentation, Michael White will give an insight into the inner workings of high profile journal. Subjects raised include: How does Nature decide what to publish? How is the process managed? What are the odds of getting published? Does the journal publish papers only in the interests of being controversial and getting press coverage? And who makes the decisions?
18 April 2018
OCCR researcher Stefan Brönnimann has received a grant of 3 million Swiss francs from the European Research Council for the next five years. The goal of the funded project PALAEO-RA is to produce a comprehensive reconstruction of global climate of the past six centuries, a palaeo-reanalysis. The reconstruction will provide globally complete, three dimensional monthly fields of many variables and thus allows dynamical interpretations of past climate events. The project combines numerical modelling and mathematical techniques with historical documentary data and measurements, and dynamical analyses.
13 February 2018
Junior researcher Julia Gottschalk spent two years doing postdoctoral research in Bern. Now the German geoscientist is moving on to Columbia University of the City of New York. What she particularly valued at the Oeschger Centre? The inspiring discussions beyond the borders of her own discipline.
15 January 2018
The next Swiss Climate Summer School will take place in Grindelwald from 26 to 31 August 2018. It will focus on the theme “Earth system variability through time”; this theme has been chosen due to its paramount importance in terms of both scientific challenges and pressing societal concerns. Always with a focus on processes, observations and modeling, the specific topics include: Earth system variability and climate change on glacial-interglacial cycles; climate change forcings and feedbacks: past, present, future; the +2°C world and beyond; tipping points, rapid changes and extreme events.
4 January 2018
The average sea temperature is an essential parameter of the global climate – but it is very difficult to measure. At least until now, because an international team of researchers including OCCR scientists have now developed a novel method using the concentration of noble gases in the eternal ice. This allows conclusions to be drawn on the changes in sea temperature from the last ice age to the present day.
14 December 2017
ERA-CLIM2 was a four-year research project funded by the EU which now came to an end with a symposium at the University of Bern, organized by the OCCR. The aim of the project, in which Stefan Brönnimann the head of the OCCR’s Climatology group played a central role, was to produce coupled reanalyses. Brönnimann and his research group did not only contribute scientific work to the project, they also produced a video that makes non-specialists understand what state-of-the-art climate reanalyses are all about. To do so, the film analyses a football kick.
27 October 2017
Hubertus Fischer of the OCCR group Past Climate and Biogeochemical Studies on Ice Cores has been awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). This medal has been established in recognition of the scientific work of Hans Oeschger. It is reserved for scientists for their outstanding achievements in ice research and/or short term climatic changes. With its awards, the EGU recognises every year eminent scientists in the earth, planetary and space sciences, and identifies the awardees as role models for the next generation of early career scientists.
24 October 2017
Robert Keohane who is a Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University, will hold a talk at the OCCR on 15 November 2017 about designing a global climate regime without US leadership. He is the author of several highly renowned books and has been awarded the Balzan Prize 2016 for International Relations: History and Theory which will be presented in Bern later this month.
23 November 2017
Half of all flood damages are caused by surface water floods. However, recent hazard maps do not take into account this process. On 23 November from 16:15 to 19:00, the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks and the OCCR organize a public event (in German) where different activities regarding research, modelling and mapping of surface water floods as well as prevention strategies will be discussed.
29 September 2017
The Oeschger Centre is a scientific partner of the exhibition “Our Water: Six Models for the Future“ at the Swiss Alpine Museum (alps). The show has now been awarded Prix Expo 2017 by the Swiss Academy of Sciences. This prize is awarded to exhibitions and related activities that convey the fascination for nature and sciences to a wide public in a thematically competent and experience-oriented way. The jury commended the «independent, courageous, and radical exhibition on a highly topical theme». The exhibition has been prolonged until 7 January 2018.
2 October 2017
The German economist Eric Strobl is a new full-time professor for environmental and climate economics at the University of Bern and a member of the OCCR. He researches in particular extreme weather events and the role they play for the economic mechanism in developing countries. With this expertise on conducting empirical evaluations of the effects of climate on the economy, the University of Bern is strengthening the exchange taking place between university research and policy, administration and economy. Eric Strobl fills the newly created endowed professorship for environmental and climate economics.
1 September 2017
Thomas Stocker, president of the Oeschger Centre and a professor of climate and environmental physics, has been awarded this year’s Marcel Benoist Science Prize which is regarded as the most important Swiss Science Prize.
15 July 2017
The OCCR presents a touring exhibition on climate research for the general public, called Container3. It is installed in sea containers and tours six city districts of Bern from mid-August to mid-September 2017. The show is realized in cooperation with the city of Bern which will present, in its own containers, topics related to energy and mobility.
3 May 2017
The Oeschger Centre is the scientific partner of an event called “The climate garden – plants of the future” at the botanical garden of the University of Bern. Part of this experience is a series of open air talks (in German) which will feature OCCR researchers.
7 February 2017
With new methods of reconstruction, climate researchers of the Oeschger Centre have been able to demonstrate that some 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Mediterranean climate was considerably warmer than previous studies had suggested. Among other things, previous concerns regarding the reliability of climate models could thus be dispelled.
1 November 2016
The Swiss Alpine Museum (alps) has teamed up with the Oeschger Centre as a scientific partner for an exhibition. The show is called “Our Water: Six Models for the Future“. OCCR researchers have provided input and guidance for the concept of this challenging exhibition which promises to take a look into the future while making the link between research and fiction. Starting from the current scientific standpoint, four contemporary authors have come up with six models for our future existence with water.
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