Thomas Stocker

The 2009 Hans Oeschger Medal is awarded to Thomas Stocker for his important contributions to the understanding of the role of the oceans in past climate changes and for his involvement in ice core studies.

Thomas Stocker is Professor of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern and head of the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics (staff of 50) of the Physics Institute since 1993. He obtained his PhD with distinction from ETH Zürich in 1987. After reserach positions at the University College (London), and McGill University (Montreal), he was appointed Associate Research Scientist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (New York) from 1991-1993.

Stocker’s main research interest is the development of climate models and the investigation of past and future climate change combining models and paleoclimatic reconstructions using ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica. He developed the first climate models of intermediate complexity and investigates the role of the carbon cycle in the climate system, in particular, the impact of abrupt climate changes on the biogeochemical cycles.

Thomas Stocker has published over 120 papers in international refereed journals with over 20 in Nature and Science. He has been member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science. Stocker served as a Coordinating Lead Author and contributor for the Third Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2001, and has coordinated the Chapter “Global Climate Projection” in the Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC published in 2007. In 2008 he was elected Co-Chair of Working Group I of the IPCC. Stocker was awarded the National Latsis Prize of the Swiss National Science Foundation in 1993, a Dr. h.c. of the University of Versailles and is co-recipient of the European 2008 Descartes Prize (as member of EPICA).