Jördis Strack begins PhD in joint project "Map4Risk"

4 February 2026

Photo: Jördis Strack

The FNK is pleased to announce that Jördis Strack has started her PhD in the joint project "Map4Risk" between the University of Hamburg (UHH) and the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS). Her research focuses on assessing heat-related risks to critical infrastructures in the healthcare sector, utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines climate and social data, stakeholder interviews, and microclimate analyses through the PALM-4U model. Jördis’ work is situated within the framework of the "Trans4Heat" Cluster, where she aims to identify suitable adaptation strategies to provide actionable insights into managing heat-related vulnerabilities. She is co-supervised by Dr. Malte von Szombathely and Dr. Benjamin Poschlod of the Climate Extremes Group at the Research Unit Sustainability and Climate Risks at the University of Hamburg.

Jördis holds a Master of Science degree in Social and Economic Data Science from the University of Konstanz, which she completed in 2025. Her master's thesis explored the use of artificial intelligence—particularly large language models (LLMs)—to explain voting behavior during the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, analyzing emotional profiles derived from survey data. Following her graduation, Jördis contributed to the project “The Politics of Inequality” at the University of Konstanz, working on the CONSOLI project, which investigates international cohesion and solidarity in crisis situations.

Throughout her academic career, Jördis has gained versatile experience—serving as a tutor in empirical methods, statistics, and mathematics for social data science courses, and working as a research assistant at the Chair of Comparative Social Policy at the University of Konstanz. Her expertise in integrating diverse data sets, conducting stakeholder interviews, and applying advanced microclimate modeling techniques makes her a vital contributor to this collaborative effort.

For more information about the University of Hamburg’s climate research initiatives or the collaboration with GERICS, please visit the website of the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS).