Paper of the month

Paper of the month

Research competition for young people on environmental issues

24 June 2022

As a scientific partner, the OCCR, together with the environmental education organisation GLOBE Switzerland, organised the largest research competition for young people in Switzerland to date. 1,400 participants from all parts of Switzerland took part. Thematically, the GLOBE Contest was limited to the areas of biodiversity, climate change, soil, and water quality. The winners of the competition were chosen at a Young People's Environmental Conference at the University of Bern.

Lead on Climate Policy for the G7

27 June 2022

In an op-ed piece in the journal Issues in Science and Technology of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine OCCR President Thomas Stocker calls on the G7 countries to take the lead in climate policy: "They have the chance to lead the implementation of measures, avoiding major disruptions and conflicts that are sure to come with further heating."

Tufted grass, bush crickets and climate change

16 May 2022

Based in Bern, Suz Everingham coordinates a global research network called the
Bug-Network. This is the unusual story of a young biologist who has moved from the ocean in Australia to the River Aare.

World Food: Ukraine War as Momentum for Change?

8 April 2022

Political scientist Lukas Fesenfeld is an OCCR member and is intensively engaged in the political feasibility of a transformative climate and food policy. Because Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine can drastically damage the food situation in the global South, Fesenfeld has initiated an appeal to politicians. He explains why in an interview.

ERC Consolidator Grant

17 March 2022

OCCR member Mattias Erb was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his project “CANWAS - Volatile Information Transfer Across Multiple Plants”. CANWAS is researching a new method for activating natural plant defenses in a targeted manner using scents. The long-term goal of the project is to enable agriculture to prepare entire fields for stress situations such as drought or herbivore attack by activating such defenses of entire populations.

On course

10 April 2022

The Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks is on course. At an event on 18 May 2022, it will look back on ten years of research in the areas of floods, hail, and storms. All these projects are characterised by a high level of practical relevance. This is evidenced, among other things, by the various digital tools that were created as part of the "Flood Risk Research Initiative". The anniversary event on Lake Thun is free of charge and open to all interested parties.

The winding road to success

15 February 2022

Chantal Hari graduated at the top of her class at the Graduate School of Climate Sciences and won a “2021 Oeschger Young Scientist’s Prize” for her achievement. Now, as a doctoral student, she’s conducting research on the impact of climate change on biodiversity.

The temporary climate scientist

15 February 2022

Luc Hächler graduated second best in his class among the students of the Graduate School of Climate Sciences and was awarded a “2021 Oeschger Young Scientist’s Prize”. He sees his professional future as a geoinformation analyst.

No. 1 in the media

24 January 2022

OCCR member Ana Vicedo-Cabrera was the lead author of the climate paper most featured in the media in 2021. This is reported by "Carbon Brief", a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy. The study on heat-related mortality attributable to climate change was picked up in 865 online news stories by 617 media outlets. The study was also mentioned by 69 blog posts and 1 286 tweets.

Tracking pesticides in the environment

18 January 2022

uniaktuell, the online magazine of the University of Bern, presents highly qualified researchers who are supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF with an assistant professorship. For example, chemist and OCCR member Aurea C. Chiaia-Hernández. Her research tracks the transport of pesticides in the environment to study their effects and impacts on aquatic ecosystems and identify threats to human health.

Three ERC Starting Grants for OCCR members

17 January 2022

The OCCR was exceptionally successful in the calls for ERC Starting Grants 2021. Three of the four grants awarded to researchers at the University of Bern went to members of the OCCR. Historian Heli Huhtamaa will receive funding for the project "Climatic impact and human consequences of past volcanic eruptions". The marine scientist Charlotte Laufkötter was awarded for the project "Mechanistic model simulations of the marine biological carbon pump". And ecologist Madhav Thakur received a Starting Grant for "Food Webs and Biodiversity Change in an Extreme World".

Scenarios for a climate-neutral world

21 December 2021

Climate modeller Edouard Davin is studying the cooling effects of urban trees. He also wants to use his research to help solve problems like water shortages in developing countries.

Eccellenza Fellowship

22 November 2021

OCCR member Charlotte Laufkötter has received a highly competitive Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship by the Swiss National Science Foundation. "Eccellenza enables researchers to conduct an independent project at assistant professor level with their own team", reads an SNFS media release. In her Eccellenza project, Charlotte Laufkötter will investigate the ocean's biological carbon pump.

City heat effect despite rain

2 November 2021

We have already become accustomed to hot summers, which is why last summer seemed particularly cool. For the researchers of "Urban Climate Bern", however, the season was not out of the ordinary. In other words: This summer's measurements also document the consequences of climate change.

Mental patients suffer more from climate change

15 October 2021

A new study by the OCCR draws attention to a previously neglected group that suffers particularly from climate change: psychiatric patients. In this interview, the three main authors of the study explain why mentally ill people are particularly vulnerable.

Learning from extreme events

23 September 2021

For once, the traditional autumn event of the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks did not take place in a lecture hall, but at the scene of an extreme event, in the centre of Zofingen, a small Swiss town which was severely damaged by a torrential thunderstorm rain in 2017.

New Vice-President

11 October 2021

Karin Ingold was elected by the OCCR Scientific Committee as the new Vice-President of the Oeschger Centre. She is a professor of political science and heads the OCCR group "Policy Analysis with a Focus on the Environment". Her main research interests are: Policy Analysis, Policy Process Theory, Instrument Design, Environmental Policy and the Application of Social Network Analysis.

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