Our Stories

The ECH is proud to announce that five of its members have been awarded full professorships by the University of Vienna. Alice Vadrot, Paul Winkler, Benedikt Warth, Franz Essl and Jillian Petersen are part of a group of 20 newly appointed professors in recognition of their scientific work and dedication.

How can young researchers effectively learn to communicate evidence-based, scientific recommendations to policymakers? This question was at the core of the Science for Policy Hackathon organized by the Innovation unit and the ECH of the University of Vienna in cooperation with the City of Vienna, the Urban Sustainability Living Lab, and SDG Watch Austria. At the final pitch event on Monday, February 10th, the groups showcased their ideas and the winners were celebrated.

Current climate goals require the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, how this should happen is up for debate. Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Potsdam Research Institute for Sustainability took a close look at the emission reduction plans of major EU industry sectors and found a substantial but underspecified reliance on uncertain carbon removal technologies. This enables them to project currently highly emission-intensive business models into the future.

While mostly hidden, groundwater is of central importance to surface ecosystems and human society. Christian Griebler, researcher at the University of Vienna and ECH-member, recently contributed to a new global model of groundwater temperature that predicts the effects of climate change on this subterranean ecosystem.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries must report their greenhouse gas emissions, including one of the most potent greenhouse gases: Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), used mainly as an insulator in the electrical industry. But the numbers don’t add up. A team of meteorologists has now published both global and regional SF6 emissions, confirming the discrepancies.

An international team of scientists, including Andreas Stohl, ECH member, meteorologist and Vice Dean at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy at the University of Vienna, used information stored in ice cores to model lead air pollution in the Roman Empire – and its likely consequences for human cognitive function.