ECCE is proudly supported by several experts in varying fields that guide the center's strategic direction and research initiatives.
Advisory Board
Dominique Berod is the Head of the Earth System monitoring Division at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He is responsible for WMO activities on water, cryosphere and ocean monitoring and information systems, supporting global efforts for, e.g., climate resilience and early warning systems. He is member of steering boards related to global data centers and geospatial networks related to climate, water and environment, and cooperates closely with the Global Climate Observing System GCOS.
Isabelle Bey is the Head of the Western Regional Center and a member of the Extended Management of MeteoSwiss. Together with her team and in close collaboration with the other MeteoSwiss forecasting centers, she is responsible for general and aeronautical forecasting for western Switzerland (Romandie & Valais), and in particular for issuing warnings in the case of severe weather. She joined MeteoSwiss in 2016. Prior to this, she managed the Center for Climate Systems Modeling (C2SM) at ETH Zurich as Executive Director and led a research group in the field of atmospheric chemistry & climate interaction modeling at EPFL.
Anthony has been Professor of Statistics at EPFL since 1996. He has published widely on statistical theory and methods and been editor of major statistics journals. His research on topics related to risk and extreme values spans four decades and a wide range of topics within the area, including applications ranging from nuclear safety to the modelling of extremes of environmental variables such as rain, snow, windstorms and hail impacts.
Christian Gerber (Etat de Vaud)
Christian Gerber is a geologist and head of the Natural Hazards Unit of the Canton of Vaud, which is responsible for prevention to protect people and property against natural hazards and disasters. It acquires basic data, analyses the territory and assesses the risks in exposed areas. It finances and participates in research projects at UNIL and HEIG-VD on the effects of climate change, in particular the variability of the aforementioned data and their use in integrated risk management. Prior to this, Christian was seconded for many years by Swiss Humanitarian Aid to Unicef and UNHCR to work on water, hygiene and sanitation projects.
Prof. Michael Lehning (WSL and EPFL)
Michael Lehning is the joint WSL / EPFL Professor for Cryospheric Sciences and Snow Processes and heads the CRYOS and the “Snow Processes” groups at Lausanne and SLF Davos. His major research areas include: Interaction Snow - Atmosphere; Natural Hazards Forecasting and Extreme Events; Turbulence and Boundary Layer Flows and Wind and Solar Renewable Energy. Based on his modelling and measurement expertise, he has made significant contributions to understanding of snow – terrain – atmosphere interactions in extreme environments.
Stéphane Loisel is now professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Cnam) in Paris, in charge of the chair in Actuarial Science and Science of Risk, and a member of Lirsa. Former head of LSAF research lab in Lyon, Stéphane has been lecturing at UNIL for several years. His main research interests include climate change and insurance, sustainability, ruin theory with dependent risks, Solvency II, regulation and ERM, as well as longevity risk. He is the PI of the research chair "Sustainable actuarial science and climate risks" sponsored by Milliman Paris.
Dr. Laurent Marescot (Moody's RMS)
Laurent Marescot is a catastrophe risk management expert at Moody's RMS, advising major players in the re/insurance industry on natural catastrophe, agriculture, cyber, and terrorism risk management. He also serves as an expert for governmental and regulatory authorities, and is a member of the EIOPA Technical Expert Network on Catastrophe Risk. Laurent initially joined RMS in 2008, focusing on the European (re)insurance and ILS market. He later became the Head of Product Management for Climate/Weather Risk (EMEA & APAC) and Global Agricultural Risk. In recent years, his activities have centered on developing new markets and segments in EMEA. Prior to RMS, Laurent worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) as a Research Associate and Lecturer, managing geophysics research projects. He frequently lectures on catastrophe modeling and insurance risk quantification and speaks at international industry conferences.
Philippe is a CNRS senior researcher at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement. His research interests are extreme-value theory, time series analysis, spatial statistics with main applications in statistical climatology and hydrology. He has been part of various national and international grants dealing with climate extremes analysis and statistical modelling.
Prof. Martine Rebetez (WSL and UNINE)
Martine Rebetez is full professor in applied climatology, for the joint professorship of the WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute and of the University of Neuchatel (UNINE). She leads the Master studies in Geography, climate change and societies at UNINE. Her main research interests are climate change, observed climate change in Switzerland, in mountain regions and in Europe, impacts of temperature increase on snow packs and snow precipitation, impacts of climate change on societies in general, more specifically on agriculture, viticulture and forests as well as on mountain tourism.
Prof. Olivia Rompainnen-Martius (UNIBE)
Olivia is professor for Climate Impact Research at the University of Bern since 2010 and co-director of the Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks. In the Mobiliar Lab they work interdisciplinary and combine information on hazards, exposure and vulnerability to provide risk assessments for Switzerland. The research focus of her group is on the dynamics and statistics of extreme weather in Switzerland and worldwide. They study hail, heavy precipitation and the subsequent formation of surface water floods, atmospheric rivers and river flooding, and windstorms.
Vincent currently serves as a research associate in the Climate Reporting and Adaptation Division at the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). He is responsible for various projects such as the heat-related deaths indicator, crop yields in climate change, adaptation and SDGs, combined climate risks, urban heat monitoring and manages two key NCCS-Impact research projects: one focusing on the global effects of climate change on Switzerland, and the other on the economic costs of climate change for the country. Vincent holds a PhD in Geography and Sustainable Development from the University of Bern and his climate research included modeling of the hydrology of the upper Blue Nile Basin under changing climate scenarios . He brings experience in hydrological and climate modelling within the realm of development cooperation. His career includes several years of (field-) work in Ethiopia and Laos, where he served as the Deputy Head of the CDE office in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
Prof. Sonia Seneviratne (ETHZ)
Sonia Seneviratne is Full Professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich. Her research addresses climate change and extreme events, land-climate interactions, and land water processes. She is IPCC Working Group I Vice-chair for the 7th Assessment Cycle of IPCC (2023-2030). She has been a Coordinating Lead Author and Lead Author on several IPCC reports, including the IPCC Special Report on Extreme events (SREX, 2012), the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C Global warming (2018), and the IPCC 6thAssessment report (2021). Sonia Seneviratne is the recipient of the Hans Oeschger Medal from the European Geosciences Union (2021) and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Utrecht University (2023).
Prof. Michael Tippett (Columbia University)
Michael Tippett is an Associate Professor in the department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University. His climate research includes detection and attribution of climate change, decadal prediction of Atlantic sea surface temperatures, and seasonal forecasts of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), as well as seasonal outlooks for temperature and precipitation for coming months. On shorter weather time-scales, Michael investigates how severe thunderstorms (those resulting in tornadoes, hail, or damaging wind) and tropical cyclones are related to climate, now and in the future. He is a co-author of the 2022 textbook Statistics for Climate Scientists.
Marc Wüest is a senior natural catastrophe model developer with more than 15 years of experience in this field for the Swiss Re proprietary platform. Building in the impacts of climate change and variability has been an essential part of this work, in Marc's case especially for tropical cyclone models. With a strong focus on the uncertainty and financial modules of the cat models, partnerships with academia - as with this Advisory Board - and tech companies have been absolutely relevant. Marc is also lecturer a ETH Zurich and University for Teacher Education in Zug (climate, atmospheric physics / chemistry, mathematics).
