Biographie

Swiss Citizen, born 21 April 1968 in Solothurn, Switzerland, married to Dr. Elena Xoplaki (climatologist), two children, 14 and 15
Email: juerg.luterbacher[at]geogr.uni-giessen.de

(CV als PDF-Dokument)

2005

PD Dr. phil nat. (Habilitation, postdoctoral qualification) awarded by the Faculty of Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland. Habilitation thesis: “North Atlantic European climate variability over the last centuries” (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Heinz Wanner)

1999

PhD degree (Dr phil nat) awarded by the Faculty of Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland. PhD thesis: “Climate reconstructions and synoptical analysis of the Late Maunder Minimum period”

1996 – 1999

Research leading to a PhD within the EU-ADVICE project
(Annual to Decadal Variability in Climate in Europe)
(Supervisors: Proff. Heinz Wanner, Christian Pfister)

1995

Diploma in Geography (equivalent M.Sc.), University of Bern
Master thesis: “Classification methods of monthly sea level pressure maps during the Late Maunder Minimum and climatological comparison with the recent period over the Atlantic European area” (written in german)

1988 – 1993

University of Bern, Institute of Geography.
Major subject: physical geography, climatology and meteorology
Minor subjects: geology/mineralogy, biology, chemistry, economics

September 2010 - August 2012

Deputy Director, Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Germany

April 2009 -

Head physical Geography section at the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany

Full Professor (Chair W3, Ordinarius) for Physical Geography/Climatology/Climate Dynamics and Climate Change, 8 hour teaching/week during the semester

Guest Professor at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland

Guest Professor at the Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

2008 – March 2009

Oeschger Centre of Climate Change Research (OCCR),
University of Bern, Switzerland
Leader Paleoclimatology group

2007 – March 2009

Ass. Professor, University of Bern, Switzerland

2007

Full Professor (Chair W3) for Physical Geography/Climatology at the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, Germany
decline of the offer

2001 – 2007

Deputy head of Climatology and Meteorology group, Institute of Geography, University of Bern

Co-PI of the Swiss interdisciplinary projects PALVAREX1 and 2 Co-PI of an integrated climate project on South

American high-resolution multi-proxy climate reconstructions Researcher within two EU projects SOAP and EMULATE

2000 - 2001

Post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, EU-Project “FLOODRISK”

July/August 2013

Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing, China

Visiting Professor, working together with Prof. Quansheng Ge and collaborators on paleoclimatic research questions and impacts in China.

February - April 2011

Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing, China

Visiting Professor, working together with Prof. Quansheng Ge and collaborators on paleoclimatic research questions and impacts in China.

February - April 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 proxyreconstructions-synoptic relation, publication.

April - June 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.

Expert

• Lead author in chapter 5 'Information from Paleoclimate Archives' of the 5th IPCC Assessment Report
• Expert Reviewer of the IPCC Special report on ‚Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation’
• Contributing Author in the 4th IPCC Assessment Report of 2007: Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Climate Change Science
• Expert and Reviewer of European Union scientific proposals
• Expert and Reviewer of Greek Institutes (Environmental & Water) and Lithuanian Departments of Geography
• Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) member of the 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’ (2006)
• Consultant of the Norwegian research council
• Steering committee member of MedCLIVAR (www.medclivar.eu), responsible for paleoclimatology, new research lines, interdisciplinary approaches
• Responsible for PAGES Focus 2k theme: Regional Climate Change for the last 2000 years in Europe and the Mediterranean (http://www.pagesigbp.
  org/workinggroups/euro-med2k)
• Co-Responsible for PAGES Focus 2k theme: Regional Climate Change for the last 2000 years in Asia (http://www.pages-igbp.org/workinggroups/asia2k)
• Member of task team on land meteorological data rescue as part of the incipient International Surface Temperatures Initiative (www.surfacetemperatures.org)
• Steering committee member of The International Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative (http://www.met-acre.org/)
• Scientific Advisor of a large Italian climate program (Nextdata)

Convener/
Organiser

• "Weather and Climate Extremes During the Past 100 years".
  Diessenhofen, Switzerland, 7-9 June 2010 (incl. securing funding)
• 11th International meeting on statistical climatology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 12-16. July 2010
• World Universities congress on ‘What should be the new aims and responsibilities of universities within the framework of global issues? Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey, 20-24 October 2010
• Workshops: EURO-MED 2k meeting: Review of current knowledge, available data covering the past 2k and plans for multiproxy integration, University of Alcala, Spain: 22. – 24. November 2010 (incl. securing funding)
• MedCLIVAR Final Conference ‘Mediterranean Climate from the past to the future’, Lecce, Italy, 6-9 Juni 2011 (incl. securing funding)
• Workshops: EURO-MED 2k: European/Mediterranean climate change over the past 2000 years, MPI Hamburg, Germany: May 2012 (incl. securing funding)
• Workshops: EURO-MED 2k: Hydroclimatic Changes in the Europe and the Mediterranean over the past two millennia, University of Reading, UK., May 2013 (incl. securing funding)
• European Geophysical Union (EGU) 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015: Convener of the session on paleoclimatology, the last 2000 years
• Organiser of the session “Studying the climate of the last two millennia“ European Geophysical Union (EGU) 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
• Organiser and securing funding of the workshop “Comparing data and model estimates of hydroclimate variability and change over the Common Era”, 1-3 June 2016, Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory, New York
  https://pages2kpmip3.github.io/
• Co-Organiser and securing funding of the workshops “Consolidation, finalization and publication of the Euro-Med2k database”), 23-25 March 2016, Hemmenhofen, Germany

Editor

• Climate of the Past
• Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Journal « The Holocene » as from spring 2017
• Advances in Meteorology (until 2012)
• Co Editor special issues of Met. Zeitschrift 2009, 2012

Reviewer activity

• Regular reviewer of more than 25 peer reviewed journals, including Science and Nature, more than 350 papers reviewed

• 2014 and 2015: Thompson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
• 2013: Medal for outstanding scientific contribution in teaching, University of Brno, Czech Republic
• 2011: Scientific Research Expert of the Academy of Athens
• 2010: Senior Visiting Scientist Award of the Chinese Academy of Science
• 2008: Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching, University of Bern, Switzerland
• 2006: Bjerknes Lecture 2006 (Bjerknes Center of Climate Research, Bergen, Norway), outstanding researcher in past climate research.
• 2003: Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Journal (JGR) - Atmospheres.

Funding sources for research projects: European Union; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Science Foundation); Belmont Forum (a group of the world's major and emerging funders of global environmental change research), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; Germany); State of Hesse (Germany); German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), British Met. Office; Copernicus

PI: Principal Investigator: Co-PI: Co-Principal Investigator

The funding sources (since 2008) are mentioned at the bottom of each project including the amount in Euro. The total amount since 2008 is > 7 Million Euro

2008 - 2011

EU Large Scale Integrated Project CIRCE (“Climate Change and Impact Research: The Mediterranean Environment”), 6^th EU Framework. PI

European Union: 200k Euro

2008 – 2013

EU-Project Large Scale Integrated Project ACQWA (“Assessing Climatic change and impacts on the Quantity and quality of Water”). 7th EU Framework: PI

European Union: 180k Euro

“Climate Change and extreme weather in Hesse – Analysis of instrumental data and ensemble projections for the 21st century”: PI

Hessian Centre on Climate Change and Geology, Germany: 133k
Euro

DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm INTERDYNAMIK, project PRIME (“PRecipitation In the past Millennium in Europe”). PI

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Science Foundation): 140k Euro

DFG-funded project “Historical climatology of the Middle East region based on Arabic sources since AD 800“. PI

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Science
Foundation): 120k Euro

DAAD Network project between Germany and Greece ("Analysis, Dynamics and Projections of the dry north winds of the Aegean Sea and potential for wind power generation"). PI

German Academic Exchange Service: 10k Euro

DAAD Network project between Germany and Spain ("Regional variability of wind and wind power: uncertainties, scenarios and extremes"). PI

German Academic Exchange Service; 10k Euro

DAAD Network project with Greece about ‚Climate Change and anthropogenic influence on the Nestos Delta, Greece‘ in collaboration with TEI Anatoliki Makedonia and Thraki, Dept. of Forestry and Natural Environment, Greece. PI

German Academic Exchange Service; 10k Euro

DFG-funded project (“Attribution of forced and internal Chinese climate variability in the common eras’). PI

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Science Foundation), 250k Euro

LOEWE Large Scale Integrated Programm (Excellency in research for the future of Hesse) ‚FACE2FACE – Folgen des Klimawandels, Anpassung an den Klimawandel und Verminderung der Treibhausgas-Emissionen bis 2050). PI and Coordinator

Hessian State; 5,3 Million Euro

DFG-funded project (“Ensemble projections of hydrobiogeochemical fluxes under climate change”). PI

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Science Foundation), 160k Euro

Climate Science for Service Partnership China project (CSSP): Digitisation and quality control of subdaily meteorological data from Asian stations in the late 19th and early 20th century. Co-PI

British Met. Office, 90k Euro

DFG-funded project “The Etesian wind system and energy potential over the Aegean Sea; Past, present, future”. PI

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Science Foundation), 211k Euro

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S); C3S Data Rescue.

Partner, 37k Euro

Belmont Forum and JPI-Climate, Collaborative Research Action “INTEGRATE, An integrated data-model study of interactions between tropical monsoons and extra-tropical” (together with the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia und Cold Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China), PI

 Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 448k Euro