June 2025

General News

Upcoming Events

People

Publications

 

General News

Symposium for the succession of the OCCR Director

On 2 and 3 June, a symposium was held in relation to the succession of Martin Grosjean. The long-time director of the OCCR will be retiring in 2027. At the event, seven candidates presented scientific lectures as potential successors: Hendrik Vogel (University of Bern, OCCR), Mana Gharun (University of Münster, Institute of Landscape Ecology), Valérie Trouet (Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona), Flavio Lehner (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York), Christoph Schwörer (University of Bern, OCCR), Olga Churakova (University of Bern, Research Data Management, University Library), and Gian-Kasper Plattner (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL)). The decision on which of these candidates will become the new OCCR director will likely be made in the fall of this year.

Four-year report completed

The writing of the four-year report for the OCCR and the Graduate School of Climate Sciences has been completed. It is now under review by all PIs and the Student Council. All revisions are expected to be finished by the end of June, after which the document will be submitted to the Vice-Rectorate for Quality. The report documents the achievements of the OCCR over the past four-year period and serves as a basis for negotiations with the university management regarding a new performance agreement (Leistungsvertrag) for the years 2026 to 2029.

Funding for the analysis of Beyond EPICA ice cores

Beyond EPICA ice cores logo

Hubertus Fischer (Past Climate and Biogeochemical Studies on Ice Cores group) has received funding from the SNFS (CHF 859,698) for his project „Imprint of Paleoclimate changes in the Aeolian dust ice core record over the last 1.5 million years (PalAeo1.5)”. The project aims to analyse mineral dust in the Beyond EPICA ice cores, which were successfully drilled during the campaign that concluded at the beginning of this year. In the meantime, the ice from Antarctica Celsius has arrived - cooled to minus 50 C° - at the project partner Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI) in Bremerhaven. The ice will be cut into samples there starting in mid-June.

Chair in Climate and Law

The University of Bern is establishing a new endowed professorship in "Climate and Law." Supported by the Bloom Foundation, the professorship will be based at the Institute of Public Law within the Faculty of Law and will be affiliated with the OCCR. The application process for the professorship is currently underway.

Change in OCCR Communications

Martin Zimmermann

Martin Zimmermann will become the new Communications Officer at the OCCR, succeeding Kaspar Meuli at the end of September 2025. He is 42 years old, studied Communication and Political Science at the University of Fribourg, and has extensive experience in journalism and corporate communication. Martin Zimmermann has worked, among others, for the Communication Department at the University of Bern and for the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Most recently, he was a project manager for Corporate Communications at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). The position of Communications Officer at OCCR corresponds to a 50 percent workload.

Night of Research

The joint appearance of the OCCR at the University of Bern’s Night of Research on 6 September 2025 will take place before and inside the Dome Room (Main Building). The Night of Research runs from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Save the date and stop by the OCCR exhibition!

Workshop on human consequences of volcanic-induced climatic shocks

The Climate and Society group will organize an international workshop at St. Petersinsel from 10 to 13 June 2025. The aim of the workshop is to investigate human consequences of past volcanic-induced climatic shocks. The workshop will bring together experts from many different disciplines, studying a variety of geographic regions. The aim is to generate a better understanding of volcano-climate-society interactions and help develop a more robust methodology for attributing social impacts to volcanic climate changes.

Upcoming Events

D.A.CH 2025

From 23 to 27 June 2025 the triannual conference on Meteorology D.A.CH will take place at the University of Bern. The conference is organized under the auspices of the German, Austrian and Swiss Societies for Meteorology (DMG; ÖGM; SGM) and hosted by the Oeschger Centre. Programme and registration.

ContaSed 2025

The 3rd International Conference on Contaminated Sediments ContaSed 2025 will take place at University of Bern 2 – 4 September 2025. For details see the conference website.

2. Berner Klimarechtstagung

The second Bern Climate Law Conference (in German) will take place at the University of Bern on 30 October 2025. Topic: Climate protection and grey emissions. For details see the conference website.

Hans Sigrist Symposium: Climate Justice: A Framework for Safe Boundaries of the Earth System

The Hans Sigrist Prize 2025 Symposium will take place at the University of Bern on Friday, 5 December 2025. This one-day Symposium will feature the Hans Sigrist Prize Lecture by the Laureate 2025, accompanied by high profile keynote lectures in the field of essential science for climate legislation and litigation, climate law, climate ethics and Earth System justice.
Save the date!

Swiss Climate Summer School 2026: Climate Variability across Space and Time

The Swiss Climate Summer School 2026 will take place from 30 August to 4 September 2026 in Grindelwald. Save the date! The announcement and call will open in September 2025.

People

Successful young researchers

At the Swiss Global Change Day contest 2025, the prize for the best poster in all categories went to young researchers from the OCCR. Congratulations! The winners are:

Onno Doensen

Onno Doensen who is doing his PhD in the Earth System Modelling - Atmospheric Dynamics group and in the Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research.

Francesco Grossi

Francesco Grossi who is a research associate with the Geocomputation and Earth Observation group.

Helene Hollizer

Helene Hollizer who is a PhD student with the Ocean Modelling and Climate Change and Health group.

Elisabeth Tadiri

and Elisabeth Tadiri who is doing here PhD in the Climate Change and Health group.

Maha Sheikh: monitoring experimental floods

monitoring experimental floods

PhD student Maha Sheikh (Geomorphology and Natural Hazards group) participated in a recent field campaign in the Swiss National Park in Engadin. The focus of this campaign was the Spöl River, which is dammed by two structures, and where a pioneering mitigation and restoration program involving experimental floods - high flows released from the dams - is being conducted.

This long-term initiative is unprecedented in Switzerland and serves as an exemplary site in Europe and beyond. As part of the program, ecological responses to these experimental floods are monitored. In the framework of this monitoring, Maha Sheikh carried out five drone flights to collect high-resolution imagery and topographical data.

Lisa Jourdain: field campaign in Australasia

Lisa Jourdain

In spring 2025, PhD student Lisa Jourdain (Dendrosciences group) spent four weeks in Australasia looking for centuries-old wood samples that contain valuable information about past climates. In a logbook, she shared stories from her expedition which took her to remote forest sites and into an ancient wood archive.

Researchers who have recently joined the OCCR:

Alicia Engelmann is a new PhD with the Mobiliar Group for Climate Impact Research. She completed a Master’s in Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Augsburg with a thesis entitled "Summer hydrological droughts in Switzerland: classification and hydrometeorological precursors". Her research focus is on predicting extreme storm impacts over Europe on subseasonal timescales.

Catherine Gregory is a new Postdoc with the Ocean Modelling group. She completed her PhD at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. She brings strong expertise in the analysis and modelling of oceanic extreme events, such as marine heatwaves, and will expand her research into compound events by combining observational data with Earth system model simulations.

Lorenz Hilfiker is a new Postdoc with the Climatology group. He holds an MSc in Particle Physics from Durham University (UK), an MSc in Statistics and Data Science from the University of Bern and did a PhD in Mathematics at the University of Hamburg. His research interests are in palaeo-climate reconstruction, data assimilation, and the Kalman filter.

Pawandeep Singh Kohli is a new Postdoc with the Plant Genetics and Development group. He did a PhD in Plant Biology and Biotechnology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi. The title of his thesis was "Deciphering Novel Mechanisms for Low Phosphorus Tolerance in Plants". His current project is called “Grass stomatal diversity and climate change resilience”.

Samuel Lüthi is a new Postdoc with the Climate Epidemiology and Public Health research group. He conducted his PhD in the Weather and Climate Risks group at ETH Zurich, focusing on the mortality impacts of potential extreme summer seasons. Prior to his PhD, he studied Environmental Science at ETH Zurich. In his new role he will aim to advance the understanding of attributing health impacts to the rapidly changing climate within the scope of the TACTIC project, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Louis Mirallié is a new PhD with the Atmospheric Processes and Radiometry group. He completed a Master’s in applied physics at EPFL. The working title of his PhD thesis is “Bayesian composite of ozone profiles over the alps”.

Brent Wouters is a new PhD with the Paleogenomics and Vegetation Modelling group. He holds an MSc in Biology (biodiversity, conservation and restoration) from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, with a thesis entitled “Variations in vegetation and mycorrhizal fungal communities on snowbeds: then and now”. The working title of his PhD thesis is “Exploring mountain forest response to past environmental changes in the Eastern Alps using ancient DNA”.

Zhen Yang is a new Postdoc with the Climate and Society group. Before joining the OCCR, Zhen was a Postdoc at the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities (Trinity College Dublin) where she conducted research on the environmental history of East Asia. She is now exploring how different historical societies were impacted by explosive volcanic eruptions and the related climatic shocks over the past 2500 years.

Jennifer Zhu is a new PhD with the Paleogenomics and Vegetation Modeling group. She completed a Master’s in Bioarchaeology at the University of York with a thesis entitled “Determination of the Origin of Rats in North America through Whole Genome Sequencing of Rats from 16th - 18 th Century Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico”. Her PhD research is on “Exploring mountain forest responses to past environmental changes in the Western Alps using ancient DNA”.

A warm welcome to all of you!

Researchers who have recently left the OCCR:

Dylan Geissbühler was a PhD at the Laboratory for the Analysis of Radiocarbon with AMS (LARA). He will start a Postdoc at the University of Utrecht, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU) as part of a project Investigating Methane for Climate Action (IM4CA).

Chantal Zeppenfeld was a PhD with the Past Climate and Biogeochemical Studies on Ice Cores group. Chantal will stay in ice core science moving to the Centre for Ice and Climate at the University of Copenhagen, where she will compile centennial to millennial-scale proxy time series from ice cores.
 
All the best for your future career!

Recent journal publications by OCCR members

See all the publications by OCCR members.