Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)

December 2023

General News

Past Events

Upcoming Events

People 

Publications  

 

General News

New Mobiliar Professorship “Climate and Human Health”

We are very pleased to announce that the contract between the University of Bern and Mobiliar Insurance has been signed. This contract is the basis to establish a new structural professorship (Ass Prof tt or aoP) in “Climate and Human Health in the Built Environment”. This professorship will be hosted at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine ISPM, thus fostering the collaboration between the OCCR and the Medical Faculty. We expect that the position of this professorship will be filled by the end of the year 2024. This was possible thanks to the outstanding and established collaboration between Mobiliar and the OCCR with the Mobiliar Professorship “Climate Impacts” (Prof. Olivia Romppainen, since 2010) and the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks (since 2013).

Replacement of the OCCR Director in 2027: Structural Report needed

The current OCCR Director, Martin Grosjean, will retire in January 2027. It is agreed with the University Board of Directors that this important position should again be filled at the level of aoP or oP (structural professorship) and be hosted at a Department/Institute of the Faculty of Science.
The OCCR has been mandated to elaborate a Structural Report, outline the future leadership and justify the position of the OCCR Director at the rank of a professor. Accordingly, a Structural Commission will be established in Spring 2024. It is envisaged that the opening of the position of the OCCR Director is advertised in fall 2024.

OCCR researchers featured in UniBE video

OCCR researchers featured in UniBE video

The future global climate policy is being negotiated at COP 28 in Dubai.
But where are we today? Where is climate change already making itself felt? Four researchers from the OCCR get to the heart of current developments in their field in short video statements in the University of Bern's uniAKTUELL web journal.

Mobiliar Professorship “Climate Impacts” and “Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks” extended until 2028

The successful work by Olivia Romppainen, Luzius Thomi and Andreas Zischg in the framework of the “Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks” and the Mobiliar Professorship “Climate Impacts” bears fruit: Mobiliar has decided to extend the contract and the funding for another 4.5 years until the end of 2028. This renewed commitment adds up to a total of 18 years sustained funding for the Professorship and 15 years for the Mobi Lab, which is outstanding for a Public Private Partnership. It underlines the long-term commitment of Mobiliar and the high credibility of the OCCR in fundamental and applied climate research.

Self-assessment OCCR and Graduate School in a new cycle

The OCCR and the Graduate School undergo self-assessments in 4-years cycles. This is the basis for the 4-years funding periods for the OCCR and the financial support for the Graduate School.
It has been decided that, from now onwards, both self-assessments are synchronized and due in the same year (2025, 2029, ff) but still in separate reports. Accordingly, the self-assessment of the Graduate School foreseen for 2024 is postponed by one year.

Revision of the OCCR basic documents

The OCCR has a Statutory Framework (issued by the University in 2007) and Rules of Internal Procedures (2008). These basic documents are mostly outdated and need to be revised according to the guidelines and requirements of the University Board of Directors. This task shall be undertaken in 2024 under the lead of the OCCR Board and in consultation with the OCCR PIs. Dates for meetings will be communicated in due time.

Latest edition of ProClim Flash is out

ProClim Flash

The Institute of History and the Oeschger Centre were the organisers of the 12th biennial conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) in Bern, which was dedicated to the theme "Mountains and Plains. Past, present and future environmental and climate linkages". This international conference was held in Switzerland for the first time and attracted around 550 participants locally, and 80 more online.

Past Events

Climate protection and subsidies

The conference "Climate protection and subsidies: Do we need reforms was a success?". It was co-organised by the OCCR on 20 October 2023. The event raised general awareness for subsidies in the climate law debate and launched a conversation on a topical but little-discussed issue. For example, the renowned radio programme "Echo der Zeit" on Swiss Radio SRF picked up on the topic.

Career Exploration Day in a research lab

Career Exploration Day in a research lab

On 9 November, the traditional Career Exploration Day (Zukunftstag) took place in all professional fields in Switzerland. At the University of Bern, a total of 250 children took part in the various activities offered by a wide range of institutes. The OCCR’s Lake Sediments and Paleolimnology group received 13 students from 5th to 7th grade to provide them an insight into the work of researchers.

The students got the opportunity to have hands in the field of paleolimnology and spend a day in a research laboratory. The paleolimnologists made their visitors find out what a sediment core looks like, and what it tells us in terms of past and present climate.

Upcoming Events

Policy Indices Workshop

The OCCR’s Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance group is organizing an international workshop on 6 – 8 March 2024. The “Policy Indices Workshop” aims to bring together researchers who are focused on quantifying policy effort and instruments. Participants will exchange on “behind-the-scenes” experiences of developing policy indices. Workshop participants will introduce their indices with a focus on what they initially want to do and what they finally achieved. Spaces are limited, email Jack Baker (jack.baker@unibe.ch) to reserve a spot.

Next plenary meetings

The next OCCR Plenary Meetings will take place on 12 February 2024 and 10 September 2024. Save the dates! Program and registration will be made available in due time.

Young Researchers Meeting 2024

The OCCR Young Researchers Meeting 2024 will take place in Leissigen / Lake Thun on 6 and 7 June. The topic of the meeting is „Scientific excellence in Climate Sciences”. It will provide views on what 'excellence' is or should be in terms of scientific performance, or more concretely, regarding state-of-the art coding, data management, argumentation in scientific texts, or a prosperous working environment. There will be keynotes, plenary and panel discussions, and workshops. The meeting is open to junior climate researchers. The program and registration procedure will follow in due time. Save the date.

Swiss Climate Summer School 2025: save the date

The 23rd Swiss Climate Summer School will evolve around the theme “Sustainable pathways to net zero” and take place at CSF Monte Verità, Ticino between 24 – 29 August 2025. The call will open in September 2024.

Conference on climate of the past and societal responses

From 5 - 8 June 2024 the conference “Climate of the past and societal responses to environmental changes” will take place in Bern. It is co-organized by the OCCR and brings together researchers from history, archaeology, environmental and climate sciences.

People

Jonathan Buzan featured in Salon magazine

Jonathan Buzan (Earth System Modelling – Biogeochemical Cycles group) contributed to the article “Will climate change make our planet a desert? Why ‘uninhabitable’ may be the wrong climate framework” in Salon magazine. According to their website Salon, founded in 1995, is “an independent publication covering news and politics through a progressive, nonpartisan editorial lens, alongside our rigorous and inquisitive coverage of culture and entertainment, science and health, and food.” The US news and opinion magazine was founded in 1995.

Sonia Dupuis receives Early Career Scientist Initiative Award

Sonia Dupuis (Climatology group) has been honoured with the Early Career Scientist Initiative Award at the EUMETSAT meteorological satellite conference Malmö, 2023. The title of her presentation was “A Northern hemisphere perspective on Land Surface Temperature variability and trends of the last 40 years”.

Monika Feldmann wins CLIMACT speaker award

Monika Feldmann (Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research) has won the speaker award at the CLIMACT Atmospheric Science Day.
CLIMACT is a joint EPFL and UNIL Center whose mission is to promote systemic actions as well as interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research in the climate field. CLIMACT launched its activities in June 2021, one of its two academic co-directors is Samuel Jaccard, a former OCCR member and Adjunct researcher since he moved to the University of Lausanne.

Lukas Fesenfeld and Isabelle Stadelmann in Global Tipping Points Report

Global Tipping Points Report

OCCR members Lukas Fesenfeld (Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance group) and Isabelle Stadelmann (Comparative Politics group) were involved in the Global Tipping Points Report that was presented at COP 28 in Dubai. This report is the most comprehensive assessment of tipping points ever conducted and was produced by an international team of more than 200 researchers, coordinated by the University of Exeter. “Tipping points in the Earth system pose threats of a magnitude never faced by humanity”, the report reads.

“But tipping points also offer our best hope: we need to prioritise and trigger positive tipping points in our societies and economies”, says Lukas Fesenfeld who is the lead author of the report’s chapter on Positive Tipping Points in Food Systems. 

David Ginsbourger joins OCCR’s Scientific Committee

David Ginsbourger (Mathematical and Applied Statistics group) will replace Johanna Ziegel in the OCCR’s Scientific Committee, she has been offered a new position at ETH Zürich.

Michaela Mühl and Fortunat Joos are part of deep drilling campaign in Antarctica

campaign in Antarctica

The Little Dome C site in Antarctica has reopened for the third ice core drilling campaign of the international research project Beyond Epica oldest ice, in which the OCCR group Past Climate and Biogeochemical Studies on Ice Cores is involved.

By analyzing ice cores extracted from the deep ice in Antarctica, the project aims to obtain information dating back to 1.5 million years ago, regarding the evolution of temperature, the composition of the atmosphere, and the carbon cycle. A team of 16 people will work in the middle of the Antarctic plateau for two months under extreme weather and time conditions. OCCR members Michaela Mühl and Fortunat Joos are part of the campaign team which has been put together with researchers from eight European research institutions.

Successful book authors Christian Pfister and Heinz Wanner

The book "Climate and Society in Europe. The Last 1000 Years", published in 2021 by the two OCCR emeriti Christian Pfister and Heinz Wanner in English and German by Verlag Haupt in Bern, will be translated into French and Hungarian and published by two publishing houses in Switzerland and Hungary.

Christoph Raible secures Sinergia funding

Christoph Raible (Earth System Modelling - Atmospheric Dynamics group) has been granted a SNFS Sinergia project called “Holocene hydroclimate, drought dynamics and environmental changes recorded in multiple archives from SW Asia (MITRA)”. To enhance the understanding of the causes and patterns of climatic changes and their influence on the environment in SW Asia, the project will develop a dense network of different paleo records and climate model simulations to understand past changes of the complex climate in SW Asia, in particular the hydroclimate. MITRA will thus provide the data that are urgently needed by archaeologists and historians to investigate the climatic environmental-human connections in the recent and distant past.
The project is a synergetic endeavor that involves the University of Basel (Dominic Fleitmann), the university of Bern (Christoph Raible) and the Mediterranean Institute of marine and terrestrial Biodiversity and Ecology in France (Morteza Djamali) and will start in May 2024.

Great honour for Michael Sigl

Michael Sigl (Palaeovolcanism and Climate Impacts group) has been honoured with the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) for 2024. This prestigious prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in the field of ice research or short-term climatic changes in the past, present and future. Michael Sigl's research focuses on the effects of past volcanic eruptions on society, among other things.

Luzius Thomi is leaving the Mobiliar Lab

Luzius Thomi, Co-Director of the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks, is stepping down. He has worked for the Mobiliar Lab since its foundation in 2013. The Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks is a joint research initiative between the University of Bern's Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and Mobiliar Insurance. As of March 2024, Luzius Thomi will take up his new position as Head of Master's Studies in the Departmental Management of the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) at Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH).

Michelle Worek honoured by Swiss Snow, Ice and Permafrost Society

Michelle Worek (Analytical Chemistry Research group) was awarded the SEP-NGP-Prize for Young Researchers for the best poster presentation in the Cryospheric Sciences Session at the 2023 Swiss Geoscience Meeting in Mendrisio.

Andreas Zischg awarded a Sinergia project

Andreas Zischg (Geomorphology, Natural Hazards and Risk Research group) has been awarded a SNFS Sinergia project called “The hydrography of Mesopotamia. Rivers and Channels in Babylonia from the late 4th to the 1st Millennium BCE (HyMEs)”. In view of the importance of Mesopotamia for the history of civilization in general and of its rivers and canals for its cultural development, exact water courses as well as their changes during the millennia considered here have been poorly examined. The HyMEs project aims to combine the information from the huge corpus of cuneiform texts with remote-sensed reconstruction of ancient river canals and numerous archaeological and geomorphological fieldwork projects. The research approach relies on data mining and formal network analysis to link toponyms and hydronyms mentioned in texts with archaeological data on settlements and remote sensing-based hydrographical network reconstructions.

Researchers who have recently joined the OCCR:

Setareh Amini is a new PhD with the Climatology group. She did a Master's in Agricultural Engineering-Water Resources Engineering at the Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran with a thesis entitled "Determining the best temporal resolution of rainfall forecasting systems in different climates of Iran". The working title of her PhD thesis is: “Urban Green Space and Climate in a Network of Urban Climate Networks (URBNET)”.

Ikram Bakour is a new Postdoc with the Soil Science group. She holds a MSc degree in analytical chemistry for drugs and natural products and did her PhD in analytical and environmental chemistry. Her thesis was entitled: “Mercury speciation in bacteria cells combining analytical techniques”.

Fulden Batibeniz is a new Postdoc with the Earth System Modelling - Atmospheric Dynamics group. She holds a Master’s in Atmospheric Sciences from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and then did a PhD in the same institution. Later she worked as a Postdoc at ETH Zürich and currently, she is splitting her time between ETH (20%) and the University of Bern (80%).

Xinyang Fan is a new Postdoc with the Hydrology group. She completed a joint PhD degree between the University of Melbourne in Australia and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. Her PhD thesis was entitled “Quantifying the impact of climate variability and change on groundwater”. She is now working for the SEHAG project (“SEnsitivity of High Alpine Geosystems to climate change since c. 1850”). Her research interests focus on understanding the past and future impact of climate change on water resources at the high Alpine catchments, especially on the role of groundwater.

Jan Göpel is a new Postdoc with the Climate Scenarios for Sustainable Development group. He was trained as a sustainable economist in Leipzig and Kassel before completing his PhD on ecosystem science and modelling of ecological to anthropogenic systems in Kassel. His specific research interests evolve around the co-creation of socio-ecological scenarios, the modelling of land use and land cover change, and assessing ecological impacts of anthropogenic activities in and around natural systems throughout time, from the past to an uncertain future. In his new position, Jan's work mostly focuses on restoring ecosystem services as well as integrating anthropogenic activities in functioning natural systems.

Lilian Goepp is a new PhD with the Climate change and health group. He gained a Master’s in mathematics and statistics at the University of Strasbourg, France with a thesis entitled “High dimensional statistical analysis in clinical trials”. Then he worked as a research engineer at the cancerology institute of Strasbourg. The working title of his PhD thesis is: “Vector-Borne Diseases risk modelling with regards to climate change”.

Adrian Huerta is a new PhD with the Climatology group. He did a Master’s in Water Resources Engineering at the National Agrarian University of Peru with a thesis entitled "The vulnerability of water availability in Peru due to climate change: A probabilistic Budyko analysis". The working title of his PhD thesis is: "Weather reconstruction of daily precipitation for South America since the early 1950s".

Sarah Jackson is a new Postdoc with the Past Climate and Biogeochemical Studies on Ice Cores group. She did BSc in Geology at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ and a MSc in Chemical Oceanography at the University of Victoria, Canada. The title of her thesis was: “The distribution of dissolved cadmium in the Canadian Arctic Ocean”. She then completed her PhD at the Australian National University, Canberra (Thesis title: “Climate variability in coastal East Antarctica over the past millennia: insights from the Mount Brown South ice core water isotope record”).

Merel Jansen is a new Senior researcher with the Climate Scenarios for Sustainable Development group. She is one of the coordinators of the interdisciplinary project on agroecology. Her research focuses on the sustainable use and restoration of tropical forest resources, in particular non-timber forest products. She aims to identify solutions that can maximize ecological and livelihood benefits. She collects empirical data and uses this to parameterize models that simulate processes at individual tree, population, and landscape levels. Currently, Merel Jansen is evaluating the potential of tropical agroforestry to provide a range of ecosystem services, including local and regional climate regulation, in south-west Amazonia..

Myke Koopmans is a new a new Research associate with the Climate Scenarios for Sustainable Development group. She holds an MSc in Geo-information Science and an MSc in International Land and Water Management with a specialization in Sustainable Land Management and in Climate Smart Water Management. She focuses on transdisciplinary research related to land use, agriculture and urban heat, often with a spatial data component. Before joining the Climate Scenarios for Sustainable Development group, Myke was involved in both consultancy and academic projects related to SDG and deforestation monitoring, land use mapping and GNSS development.

Vasileios Mandrakis is a new Postdoc with the Environmental Isotopes and Gases group. He will be responsible for measurements done within the ICOS-CH observational network. ICOS Switzerland is the Swiss contribution to the Integrated Carbon Observation System Research Infrastructure ICOS.

Antonio Aristides Pereira Gomes Filho is a new PhD with the Stomatal Biology group. He gained a Master’s in plant Physiology at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brasil with a thesis entitled "Silicon participation in the processes of absorption, translocation and attenuation of arsenic toxicity in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)”. The working title of his PhD thesis is: “Physiological importance of subsidiary cells in the succulent model plant Kalanchoë laxiflora”.

Jonas Schmid is a new Postdoc with the Comparative Politics group. He gained a Master’s (double) degree from ETH and University of Zurich in political science.Then he did a PhD at the University of Bern on the topic of wind energy authorization procedures in Switzerland and how they could be improved. As a Postdoc he will continue to investigate energy policies and politics in conjunction with (Swiss) political institutions in a project on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy called SWEET-EDGE.

Thomas Wassermann is a new PhD with the Soil Science group. He gained a Master’s in Food- and Agricultural Economics at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) with a thesis entitled "Blockchain Technology in the Austrian Agri-food Supply Chain". He then did a Master in Crop Sciences also at BOKU with a thesis entitled “Interactive effects of pesticides and antibiotics as stressors in plant-soil relationships. An Ecosystem Multifunctionality Approach”. The working title of his PhD thesis is: “Soil health monitoring with infrared spectroscopy: potentials for measuring, reporting, verification systems and derivation of ecosystem services and soil functions”.

A warm welcome to all of you!

Recent journal publications by OCCR members

See all the publications by OCCR members.