I’m an interdisciplinary climate scientist helping inform climate impacts projections and decision-making under uncertainty. I’m currently a Columbia Climate School Postdoc, working with Radley Horton and Gernot Wagner on uncertainty in projections of climate impacts, especially in high-risk, data-sparse regions. I recently defended my PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University, having worked with Richard Seager (and previously Lisa Goddard) at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).
I’ve studied the drivers of the long and short rains in East Africa, internal variability in climate models, and the sensitivity of climate impact projections to uncertainty in climate data. I’ve found that climate impact projections need to incorporate the ‘internal’ variability of the climate to avoid underestimating tail risks, that both oceanic and atmospheric biases are causing climate models to poorly simuate the rainfall in East Africa, but also that better understanding the region’s fundamental dynamics can help us better prepare for the future.
I’ve co-written a tutorial on using climate data in climate econometrics. I’ve taught lessons and seminars on climate projections and climate change at the middle school, high school, undergraduate, and master’s level. I write python and R packages such as this one on aggregating gridded data onto geographic regions or this one that uses the delta method to bias-correct and downscale Large Ensemble projections. I care about open-source data, replicability, and democratization of science tools, and I believe science is a social enterprise that works better when it’s diverse, open, and accessible. I run NENSIC, an interdisciplinary network to bring together students and young professionals interested in climate issues from any background.
I’m a Paris-born Austrian who’s also felt at home in Los Angeles, Chicago, Beijing, and New York. I play and record violin tracks from roots to rock to hip hop.
Recent news
10/2024 - I joined the Como Summer School on Compound Events team as a supervisor for a project on projections of compound extremes.
10/2024 - I had a great time visiting the Oxford School of Geography and the Environment to give a talk on recent developments in East African climate research, and greatly appreciated the change to exchange ideas on improving climate forecasts and projections in the region.
09/2024 - I started a Columbia Climate School Postdoctoral position, working on uncertainty in projections of climate impacts.
07/2024 - I visited the Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie in Hamburg, and presented on recent research on East African rainfall.
04/2024 - Catch me at the 2024 EGU Annual Meeting in Vienna, presenting on trends in the East African long rains!
11/2023 - I’m attending the 2023 CATER School on Transdisciplinary Climate Risk Adaptation and Action in Naivasha, Kenya.
10/2023 - I attended the 2023 WCRP Open Science Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, presenting on climate model behavior in East Africa and uncertainty in climate impacts.
10/2023 - I won the 2023 ASciNA Young Researcher Award for Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America.