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Véronique Boillet has been an Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at UNIL since 2017. She earned her law degree in 2004, obtained an LL.M. from Humboldt-Universität of Berlin in 2005, and was admitted to the Bar in 2011. Currently, she serves as the co-president of UNIL's <a href="https://www.unil.ch/plage/fr/home.html">Gender Studies Platform</a>, is a member of UNIL's <a href="https://www.unil.ch/centre-durabilite/home.html">Competence Center in Sustainability</a>, the <a href="https://www.unil.ch/fdca/fr/home/menuinst/poles-facultaires/pole-environnement-et-climat.html">Environment and Climate Cluster</a> in her faculty, and the association <a href="https://avocatclimat.ch/">Avocats·e·s pour le Climat</a>.

Véronique Boillet offers a Master course in Law and Environment titled "<a href="https://applicationspub.unil.ch/interpub/noauth/php/Ud/ficheCours.php?v_enstyid=84665&amp;v_ueid=5&amp;v_langue=37">Environment and Human Rights</a>". As part of her research, she explores democratic tools and the connections between human rights and the environment, particularly focusing on the recognition of the right to a healthy environment. As an expert in public law with broader interests, she also delves into the issue of the state's responsibility concerning environmental protection, health, social justice, and equality.

Véronique

Climat: des politiciens invitent les  scientifiques à « communiquer comme des  lobbys » 

Associate professor in constitutional law

Prof.

Seminar presenters

Affliated researchers

Fabrizio Butera is a Professor of Social Psychology at UNIL. Previously,
 he held the position of Professor of Social Psychology and served as 
the Director of the Social Psychology Laboratory at the Université 
Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble. He was elected as the President of the
 <a href="https://www.easp.eu/">European Association of Social Psychology</a>
 from 2011 to 2014 and was a member of the Research Council of the Swiss
 National Science Foundation (SNSF) for Scientific Research from 2009 to
 2016.

Social psychology

Fabrizio Butera studies various aspects of social change, delving into structural processes that influence social dynamics, including factors such as power, norms, and interdependence. Among his research interests, he investigates the cognitive and motivational mechanisms that drive changes in attitudes and behavior, with a particular focus on the environmental domain. Additionally, he possesses expertise in the mechanisms of cooperation and competition, especially within educational contexts, as well as areas like conflict, social comparison, social influence, and persuasion.

Fabrizio

Avis d'experts

Comportement(s) écologique(s) (1/5) - Comment susciter des changements durables ?

Climat: la grande hypocrisie?

Full professor in Social Psychology

Executive committee

Valérie Chavez has been a Professor of Statistics at HEC Lausanne since 2011 and holds a doctorate in mathematics from EPFL. She was a research fellow in the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zurich and worked as a quantitative risk manager for a hedge fund for 3 years. She is a member of the <a href="https://risklab.ethz.ch/research.html">RiskLab</a> at ETH Zurich, is an elected member of both the International Statistical Institute and the <a href="https://bernoulli-euler-gesellschaft.ch/">Bernoulli Society</a> for Statistics and Mathematical Probability and is a founding member of the <a href="https://www.unil.ch/ecce/home/menuinst/about.html">Expertise Center for Climate Extremes</a> (ECCE) of the University of Lausanne.

Extreme events

Valérie Chavez specialises in statistical methods for quantitative and operational risk management, with a particular focus on the modeling of extreme events. For instance, she is interested in extreme epidemiological risks and their impact on the Swiss public health service. She applies her expertise in extreme value theory to understand and predict climate extremes.

Valérie

La météo pour prédire les pics de grippe

Modélisation des extrêmes: aider à rendre l’improbable plus prévisible

Full professor in Statistics

Prof. 

Nathalie Chèvre is a researcher and teacher in ecotoxicology at the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics(IDYST)
 at UNIL. After studying environmental engineering, she completed her 
thesis at EPFL, followed by a post-doctoral research position at 
Environment Canada in Montreal. She also gained several years of 
experience at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and 
Technology (<a href="https://www.eawag.ch/">Eawag</a>),
 where her work focused on assessing the risks posed by chemicals and 
micropollutants to both humans and the environment.

Pollution

Nathalie Chèvre's research is primarily focused on risk assessment for micropollutants (such as microplastics, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and metals) and the development of new measurement tools for this purpose. She also takes an interest in urban metabolism, considering the city as a living organism, particularly in relation to the water cycle, its potability, and sustainable use. Furthermore, she conducts research on the analysis of quality criteria in public environmental policies, including social, territorial, and ethical aspects.

Ecotoxicology researcher and teacher

Nathalie 

Du charbon actif pour éliminer la pollution des eaux au chlorothalonil

Du plastique, du plastique, toujours du plastique

L’Europe annonce son ambition d’un monde “sans pollution chimique”

Researcher and Lecturer in Ecotoxicology

Daniela Domeisen has been a professor at ETH Zurich and at the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment at UNIL since 2021. She studied physics at ETH Zurich, followed by a Master's degree in Climate and Society at Columbia University in New York. She obtained her doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012. She has received numerous awards, including an <a href="https://iac.ethz.ch/news-and-events/news-en/2019/09/two-iac-members-have-received-an-erc-starting-grant.html">ERC Starting Grant</a> and the <a href="https://www.snf.ch/en/qB3Cj7WzYGcqbgVi/funding/funding/discontinued-funding-schemes/snsf-professorships">SNF Professorship</a>. Daniela Domeisen is a founding member of the <a href="https://www.unil.ch/ecce/home/menuinst/about.html">Expertise Center for Climate Extremes</a> (ECCE) of the University of Lausanne.

Climate science

Daniela Domeisen's research aims to understand the dynamics and predictability of weather and climate by studying extreme events. Her work aims to predict events such as heatwaves, floods or cold snaps several weeks or months in advance in order to improve preparedness and reduce the impact on ecosystems and human health.

Daniela

How much does planting trees help to combat climate change?

Bis 15 Grad in der Schweiz – warum spielt das Wetter verrückt? (Des températures jusqu’à 15 degrés en Suisse - pourquoi le temps devient-il fou?)

Wie kalt wird der Winter und welche Rolle spielt dabei die Klimakrise? (À quel point l’hiver sera-t-il froid, et quel rôle joue la crise climatique?)

Associate Professor in Atmospheric Processes

Antoine Guisan is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment and the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at UNIL since 2017. He earned his doctorate at the University of Geneva and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. In 2022, he was awarded by the <a href="https://www.biogeography.org/">International Biogeography Society</a> for his theoretical and methodological contributions to understanding and predicting species distributions and communities.

Biodiversity

Antoine Guisan develops predictive models of species distribution (fauna, flora, micro-organisms...), particularly in the Vaud Alps. He develops models for managing rare species, assessing the impact of climate change on biodiversity and anticipating biological invasions. He is one of the Swiss authors of the <a href="http://ipbes/">IPBES</a>, where he discusses the interactions between nature and society, and the future dynamics of biodiversity. He is also head of <a href="https://www.unil.ch/ecospat/en/home.html">Ecospat</a>, the spatial ecology group at UNIL.

Antoine

Le verdissement progressif des Alpes se voit depuis l'espace

Les sommets alpins passent du blanc au vert, et ce n'est pas une bonne nouvelle

«Il est irresponsable de vivre encore dans le déni»

Full Professor in Spatial Ecology

Samuel Jaccard holds a Master's degree in geology from UNIL and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from ETH Zurich. His Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) scholarship took him to the University of British Columbia in Canada, after which he worked as an assistant professor in climate geology at ETH Zurich. He joined the Institute of Earth Sciences at UNIL in 2020. In 2021, he participated in the Arctic Century expedition to the Russian Arctic organised by the <a href="https://swisspolar.ch/">Swiss Polar Institute</a>.

Samuel Jaccard, an <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">IPCC</a> author and specialist in Earth science, originally trained in geology before immersing himself in paleoclimate, paleoceanography, and climate change. His research centers on documenting nutrient cycling, oxygen availability in marine ecosystems, and the impact of these processes on carbon sequestration in the deep ocean. He primarily relies on sedimentological and geochemical data and also pioneers innovative tools for reconstructing marine environments.

Academic co-director CLIMACT

Samuel

Contenir le réchauffement à 1,5°C semble hors de portée

Avec son dernier rapport, le GIEC tire un nouveau coup de semonce climatique

La gigantesque menace du glacier de l'Apocalypse, en Antarctique

Associate professor in Paleoclimatic Sedimentology

Steering committee

CLIMACT team

IPCC authors

Eric Jondeau is a Professor of Finance at HEC Lausanne (UNIL) and a faculty member of the <a href="https://www.sfi.ch/">Swiss Finance Institute</a>. Since 2012, he has served as the Director of the Center for Risk Management in Lausanne. Additionally, he is the coordinator of the Systemic Risks and Sustainability platform at the Enterprise for Society Center (E4S). He is a graduate of the École nationale de la statistique et de l'économie (ENSAE, Paris) and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Université de Paris-Dauphine. He is a founding member of the Expertise Center for Climate Extremes (<a href="https://www.unil.ch/ecce/">ECCE</a>) et UNIL. 

Finance & Economy

Eric Jondeau's teaching and research are centered on systemic risk and sustainable finance. His research on systemic risk is dedicated to identifying, measuring, and mitigating risks within the climate and banking systems. His work in sustainable finance is focused on analysing strategies that encompass ESG criteria and the decarbonisation of portfolios.

Eric

ESG Faces Challenges But Investors Show Little Sign Of Giving Up On It

Eric Jondeau: « Si BlackRock s’appliquait réellement à décarboner ses portefeuilles, cela aurait un impact considérable »

« La BNS peut réduire son empreinte carbone »

Full professor in Finance

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lehning">&gt; profil complet</a>

Prof. Michael Lehning is head of the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory (<a href="https://www.epfl.ch/labs/cryos/contact/">CRYOS</a>) at EPFL and of the Snow Processes Laboratory at the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (<a href="https://www.slf.ch/fr/index.html">SLF</a>). As part of the <a href="https://www.bfe.admin.ch/bfe/en/home.html">SFOE</a>'s new Swiss Energy Research for the Energy Transition (<a href="https://www.bfe.admin.ch/bfe/fr/home/recherche-et-cleantech/programme-encouragement-sweet.html">SWEET</a>) programme, he is co-directing an interdisciplinary research project worth CHF 21 million over 7 years. This major project is studying the social and technological aspects of a renewable and decentralised energy supply in Switzerland.

Energy

Michael Lehning's research focuses on snow processes and the interactions between snow and the atmosphere. This involves generating advanced snow models that can be used to assess and predict changes in the mass balance of our snow and ice surfaces. More recently, he has helped to study the potential of renewable energy installations in the mountains to facilitate and accelerate the Swiss energy turnaround.

Academic co-director of CLIMACT

Michael

Study sees untapped solar and wind energy potential in the Alps

Solarstrom aus den Alpen – bestechend und doch heiss umstritten (L’énergie solaire dans les Alpes - séduisante et pourtant très controversée)

Swiss rivers on track to overheat by the end of the century

Full professor of Environmental Engineering

Following a degree in chemical engineering and a doctorate from the Université de Liège, François Maréchal developed pioneering solutions for identifying energy savings and improving the efficiency of processes and energy conversion systems. He contributed to the emergence of green technologies on the market as part of the Alliance for Global Sustainability. He has worked on biofuels and the design of gas turbines with reduced CO<sub class="cdx-subscript">2</sub> emissions.

François Maréchal is mainly interested in how to increase the sustainability of industrial and urban processes. His methods combine thermodynamic analysis, modelling, integration and process optimisation techniques, and are validated on real cases. He also specialises in renewable energies, efficiency and energy conversion to make industry and cities sustainable and autonomous.

François

Using CO2 to heat and cool the cities of the future

La ville suisse du futur se chauffe proprement au CO₂

Greenpeace table sur le solaire en Suisse

Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Researcher 

Alejandra 

Nicolas Senn is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine (<a href="https://www.unil.ch/fbm/fr/home.html">FBM</a>) at UNIL and Director of the <a href="https://www.unisante.ch/fr">Institut universitaire de médecine de famille</a> at the Lausanne University Medical Polyclinic (PMU). He has also been Head of the Department of Family Medicine at Unisanté since 2016, and is co-responsible for the UNIL Faculty of Biology and Medicine's "<a href="https://www.unil.ch/durabilite-sante/fr/home.html">Sustainability and Health</a>" platform. The latter focuses on the major public health consequences of the environmental crisis.

Health

Nicolas Senn specialises in general medicine and has a doctorate in epidemiology. One of his areas of research concerns the impact of climate change on clinical, public and systemic health. He helped to draw up a <a href="https://www.assm.ch/dam/jcr:4c79cfd2-4970-4b44-9de0-307aadb4fd57/feuille_de_route_assm_services_de_sante_durables.pdf">roadmap</a> with the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences for adapting healthcare services to meet the new climate challenges while respecting planetary limits.

Nicolas

Émission « L’invité de La Matinale »

Quand le climat rend malade, un nouveau champ d’étude à l’Université de Lausanne

Nicolas Senn, médecin au chevet de notre système de santé

Associate professor of Family Medicine

Julia Steinberger is Professor of Ecological Economics at
UNIL and lead author of the<span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> </span><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">IPCC</a>.
After a PhD in physics from MIT in 2004 and post-doctorates in industrial
ecology, she taught social and ecological economics at the University of Leeds
and has published over <a href="https://scholar.google.ch/citations?user=c8Ar3N4AAAAJ&amp;hl=en">55 articles</a> on climate change. Among other things, she
is co-director of a <a href="https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-synergy-grants-2022-project-highlights#REAL">major EUR 10 million, 6-year research project</a> on the
post-growth economy funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

Ecological economy

Julia Steinberger researches and teaches in the interdisciplinary field of ecological economics. Her work examines the interconnections between the use of biophysical resources (energy, emissions) and societal performance, focusing on human well-being. It employs quantitative and modelling methods derived from industrial ecology, as well as qualitative and participatory approaches, derived from political economy, aimed at a decarbonised society. Today, she co-leads a 6 year <a href="https://climact.ch/post/preview/climact-starting-grant-2021-progress-and-key-discoveries-two-years-later-2">ERC Synergy research-action project</a> about societies transition to a post-growth era.

Julia

«L’acceptation des politiques climatiques passera par la participation des citoyens»

Julia Steinberger, auteure principale du rapport GIEC, commente les enjeux climatiques mis en avant dans son rapport

Full professor of ecological economics

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CLIMACT's Experts strive to assist media and policymakers in promptly identifying authoritative experts, ensuring access to reliable information sources and facilitating the development of content and insights grounded in the latest scientific knowledge.

Connect with 12 scientists on 10 societal issues for informed journalism and policy decisions based on current climate change science.

Climate experts for Media and Politics

Connect with 12 scientists on 10 societal issues for informed journalism and policy decisions based on current climate change science.

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