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Image: Markus Scholz | Leopoldina

Professor Dr

Thomas F. Stocker

Year of election: 2019
Section: Earth Sciences
City: Bern
Country: Switzerland
CV Thomas Stocker - English (PDF)
CV Thomas Stocker - German (PDF)

Research

Research Priorities: Climate dynamics, palaeoclimate, climate modelling, ice core research, climate projection

Thomas Stocker is a Swiss geoscientist and climate physicist. He develops climate models to simulate the climatic changes of the last two million years as well as to project future changes in climate. He uses the analysis of ice cores, in particular greenhouse gas concentrations, and the dynamics of the earth system for the reconstruction of past climate chances.

The development of simplified coupled climate models allows simulations of climatic changes over many ice age cycles. These models are used to understand the dynamics recorded in paleoclimate archives, in particular records of greenhouse gases in polar ice cores and tracers measured in marine sediments. With that, Thomas Stocker opened new perspectives on both the role of palaeoceanographic trace substances in climate reconstructions as well as on calculation of future changes to the climate.

The coupling of the two hemispheres is primarily a function of the deep oceanic circulations, wherein a kind of interhemispheric seesaw shaped the climatic behaviour of the last ice age. Thomas Stocker investigates the function of this climatic seesaw and its influence on the global carbon cycle. The focus is on the transition period from about a million years ago where 40.000 year-long cycles gave way to those of the ice ages that lasted 100.000 years.

Current works are concerned with the tipping points in the coupled climatic system and how reaching them could be avoided. In ice core research the focus is on the determination of the concentration of green house gases (CO2, CH4), especially on the high-resolution reconstruction of fluctuations in the CO2-Concentration during the last 800.000 years. Such measurements of ice core samples from Antarctica provide important information about the factors that propel and amplify changes in climate.

From 2008 to 2015, Thomas Stocker co-chaired “Working Group 1” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report was adopted in September of 2013 and formed the scientific basis of the Paris-Accord of 2015.

Career

  • 2016 Guest Professor, International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA
  • 2006 Guest Fellow, International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA
  • 2005 Guest Fellow, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA
  • since 1993 Professor, Physics Institute and Department Head, Climate and Environmental Physics, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1991-1993 Associate Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York City, USA
  • 1989-1991 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Meteorology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • 1988-1989 SERC Research Fellow, Department of Mathematics, University College London, London, UK
  • 1988 Research Associate, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 1987 Ph.D., ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 1984 Diploma in Sciences (Environmental Physics), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 1978-1984 Studies in Environmental Physics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Functions

  • 2019 Member, Science Advisory Panel, World Meteorological Organization
  • since 2018 Member, Selection Committee, Roger Revelle Medal, American Geophysical Union, USA
  • since 2017 President, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2017-2020 Co-Chair, Scientific and Technical Advisory Board, Swiss Polar Institute, Switzerland
  • 2017 Chair, Evaluation Panel Earth and Environment, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
  • since 2016 Chair, Scientific Steering Committee, Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), Zurich, Switzerland
  • 2016-2019 Chair, Selection Committee, Hans Oeschger Medal, European Geosciences Union
  • since 2014 Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
  • since 2014 Member and Advisory Council, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
  • since 2013 Member, Steering Board, Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2012-2014 Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Quaternary Science Reviews
  • 2009-2020 Member, Curatorium, ProClim – Forum for Climate and Global Change, Swiss Academy of Science (SCNAT), Switzerland
  • 2007-2013 Director, National Centre for Climate Services (NFS) “Climate Variablility, Predictability and Climate Risks“, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), Switzerland
  • 2008-2015 Co-Chair, Working Group 1 “Physical Science Basis”, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
  • 2007-2008 President, Curatorium, ProClim, SCNAT, Switzerland
  • 2006-2010 Member, Research Council, SNF, Switzerland
  • 2002-2008 Reviewing Editor, Science
  • 1999-2012 Member, Editorial Board, Quaternary Science Reviews
  • 1999-2012 Member, Editorial Board, Earth and Planetary Science Letters
  • since 1998 Contributor, Reports, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Honours and Memberships

  • since 2022 Foreign Member, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice, Italy
  • 2020 Médaille du prix de La Belgica, Royal Academy for Science and the Arts of Belgium (Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique), Belgium
  • since 2019 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
  • 2018 Highly Cited Researcher, Thomson Reuters, Toronto, Canada
  • 2017 International Fellowship, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
  • 2017 President's International Fellowship for Visiting Scientist, State Key Laboratory for Cryospheric Science, Lanzhou, China
  • 2017 Swiss Science Prize Marcel Benoist, Marcel Benoist Foundation, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2017 Cesare Emiliani Lecture, American Geophysical Union, USA
  • 2017 Highly Cited Researcher, Thomson Reuters, Toronto, Canada
  • 2017 Excellence Professorship, Professor Dr Werner Petersen Foundation, Kiel, Germany
  • 2016 Honorary Doctorate, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 2016 Highly Cited Researcher, Thomson Reuters, Toronto, Canada
  • since 2016 Honorary Foreign Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), USA
  • since 2015 Foreign Member, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy
  • 2015 Highly Cited Researcher, Thomson Reuters, Toronto, Canada
  • 2014 Highly Cited Researcher, Thomson Reuters, Toronto, Canada
  • 2012 Fellow, American Geophysical Union, USA
  • 2009 Hans Oeschger Medal, European Geosciences Union
  • 2007 Descartes Prize for Transnational Collaborative Research, European Commission
  • 2006 Honorary Doctorate, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines, France
  • since 2004 Corresponding Member, Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  • since 1998 Member, Academia Europaea
  • 1993 Swiss Science Prize Latsis, SNF, Switzerland
  • 1987 Medal for outstanding doctoral thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 1985 Medal for outstanding Diploma-Thesis, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

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