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Biography


	Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change
	Prof. Jürg Luterbacher, PhD

Biography

	Research and Employment History
10/2010 - :	deputy head department of Geography
04/2009	04/2009 Full Professor (Chair W3) for Physical Geography/Climatology at the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany. Visiting Professor Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China Guest Professor University of Bern
2008-03/2009	Head Regional to Continental Climate Dynamics group, (Regional multiproxy climate reconstructions, techniques and data sets; climate diagnostics, synoptic climatology, teleconnections, detection and attribution, land-surface interactions, dynamics and feedbacks) within the Oeschger Centre of Climate Change Research (OCCR; (www.oeschger.unibe.ch) Workpackage leader Paleoclimatology NCCR Climate (www.nccr-climate.unibe.ch), University of Bern.
2007	Full Professor (Chair W3) for Physical Geography/Climatology at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany Decline of the offer.
2007-03/2009	Dozent (equivalent to lecturer/assistant professor) [lecturer = Europe; assistant professor = USA], University of Bern, Institute of Geography QSE responsible of the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland.
2001-2007	Deputy head of Climatology and Meteorology group, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland. Co-PI of the Swiss interdisciplinary projects PALVAREX1 and 2 (PALeoclimate VARiability and EXtreme events). Co-PI of an integrated climate project on South American high-resolution multi-proxy climate reconstructions (in collaboration with IGBP-PAGES and IANIGLA Mendoza, Argentina). Researcher within the two EU projects SOAP (Simulations, Observations & Palæoclimatic data: climate variability over the last 500 years) and EMULATE (European and North Atlantic daily to MULtidecadal climATE variability). Elected examiner of Geography by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Bern.
2000-2001	Post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, EU-Project “FLOODRISK” (FLOOD frequency analysis and public RISK management in a historical perspective).
1997-1999	Meteorological-statistical consultant in the EU ENRICH programme, EWVAR (East-West Variations in North Atlantic impacts on ecosystem processes) (part time).
1992-1993	Assistant to Prof. Heinz Wanner and Dr. Werner Eugster, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern (part time).
	Formal Education
2005	PD Dr. phil nat. (Habilitation, postdoctoral lecture qualification) awarded by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. Habilitation thesis: “North Atlantic European climate variability over the last centuries”.
06/1999	Ph.D. degree (Dr phil nat) awarded by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Bern PhD thesis: “Climate reconstructions and synoptical analysis of the Late Maunder Minimum (AD 1675-1715) period”.
1996-1999	Research leading to a Ph.D. within the EU-ADVICE project (Annual to Decadal Variability in Climate in Europe).
1995	Diploma in Geography (equivalent M.Sc.).
1988–1993	University of Bern, Institute of Geography. Major subject: physical geography, climatology and meteorology Minor subjects: geology/mineralogy, biology, chemistry, economics Master thesis : “Classification methods of monthly sea level pressure maps during the Late Maunder Minimum (1675-1715) and climatological comparison with the recent reference period over the north Atlantic European area”.
	Scientific Stays abroad
02 – 04/2011	Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking, China Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists: Collaboration and Research in Paleoclimatology
02-04/2006	University of Arizona, Tucson, Lab. of Tree-ring Research. Scientific collaborator in US National Science Foundation Project “Climate Variability from North African Tree Rings” (Project coordinators: Prof. M. Hughes and Prof. R. Touchan). Analysis of northern African tree rings, climatic signal and seasonality of natural proxy data, precipitation and drought reconstructions for the last Millennium, connection to the large scale atmospheric circulation using multivariate methods, stability of proxy-reconstructions-synoptic relation, publication.
04-06/2004	University of Arizona, Tucson, Lab. of Tree-ring Research. Scientific collaborator in US National Science Foundation Project “Middle East climate variability from tree ring” (Project coordinators: Prof. M. Hughes and Prof. R. Touchan). Statistical and synoptic analyses, drought and precipitation reconstructions for the last Millennium, publication, preparation for a new US NSF project.
1998-today	Many oral presentations and teaching at conferences, summer schools, workshops.
	Working experience outside University
1985-today	Employee as a sailor and cashier with the “Bielerseeschifffahrtsgesellschaft” on the cruisers of the Jura lakes, Switzerland.
1994-1999	Operational Weather Forecaster and chief weather forecaster at Meteotest, Bern, Switzerland.
1994-1995	Geography teacher in a teachers’ training center, Biel, Switzerland.

Professional activities as an Expert, Convener, Editor and Scientific Reviewer

IPCC 5th Assessment report: Lead author in chapter 'Information from Paleoclimate Archives'
Expert Reviewer of IPCC Special report ‚Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation’
Expert Contributing Author in the 4th IPCC Assessment Report of 2007: Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Climate Change Science.

Expert and Reviewer of the European Union scientific proposals remote and in Brussels related to synoptical climatology, climate change, past, present, future, impacts, water and environmental issues.

Expert, Reviewer and Supervisor for the evaluation of the Greek Institutes covering the domain of Environmental and Water Science.

Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) member of IC3 (Catalan Institute for Climate Sciences), Barcelona, Spain.
Consultant of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science, USA, for the Report on: ‘Surface temperature reconstructions for the last 2000 years’.
Steering committee member of MedCLIVAR (Mediterranean CLIVAR: http://www.medclivar.eu), responsible for past climate issues, collaboration, new research lines, interdisciplinary approaches.
Expert's report together with a private geology office on the debris/mud flow of 1795 in Central Switzerland (Contracting body: Kantonales Umweltamt Kanton Luzern).

Convener

Organizer of the MedCLIVAR Final Conference ‚Mediterranean Climate: From Past to Future’ 06.‐09.06.2011 Lecce, Italy.
Convener and co-convener of climatology, atmospheric sciences and natural hazard sessions at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 (Sessions: Atmospheric teleconnections/Climate variability and droughts in arid and semi-arid regions; Mediterranean Climate Variability; Investigation of historical records on Natural Hazards).
Convener International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences in Beijing (2005).
Convener of Workshop on ‘Climate Variability and Extremes during the Past 100 years’ (Summer 2006), Gwatt, Switzerland.
Convener of Workshop on ‘Reconstruction of past Mediterranean climate: Unexplored sources of high resolution data in historic time’ (Autumn 2006), Seville, Spain.
Convener of the ‘Leitthemensitzung ‘Klimawandel und Folgen für die Gesellschaft’ (Deutscher Geographentag), Bayreuth, Germany.
Convener of Workshop on ‘Variability of the Global Atmospheric Circulation During the Past 100 Years’, June 2008, Ticino, Switzerland.
Convener of Workshop on ‘Extreme climate events during recent millennia and their impact on Mediterranean societies’, September 2008, Athens, Greece.

Scientific Reviewer

Nature

Science

Journal of Climate

Climate Dynamics

Geophysical Research Letters

Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmosphere

Global and Planetary Change

Climatic Change

The Holocene

International Journal of Climatology

Climate Research

Theoretical and Applied Climatology

Boreas

Journal of Arid Environment

Journal of Environmental Management

Awards

2010: Awarded the Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists, Chinese Academy of Science
2008: Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching, University of Bern, Switzerland.
2006: Bjerknes Lecture 2006 (BCCR, Bjerknes Center of Climate Research, Bergen, Norway), outstanding researcher in past climate research.
2003 Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) - Atmospheres.

Communication and Media

1994 - today

Radio Interviews (US, BBC, Swiss, German, Italian and Spanish Radios, local Swiss radios) with main focus on climate variability and climate change, natural hazards, ecological and socio-economic topics, extreme events, weather forecasting. Interviews for Swiss, German and other foreign newspapers (USA Today, The Guardian, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zürcher Tagesanzeiger, St. Galler Tagblatt, Bund, Berner Zeitung), as well as TV (SFDRS, Menschen Technik Wissenschaft, CH Aktuell, RTL).

2 days applied and theoretical course ‘Medientraining für Forschende’ (media training for researchers) at MAZ, the Schweizer Journalistenschule in Luzern, Switzerland.
Expert im Climate Science Rapid Response Team. The team consists of approximately 100 scientists from all over the world which provide Journalists relevant input on climate change issues.

Reiternavigation

Faculties, Centers, Research Facilities

Faculty 07

Geography

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Biography

Prof. Jürg Luterbacher, PhD