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Sustainability and Climate Risks
Research UnitSustainability and Climate Risks

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MSc and PhD topics

For inspiration of possible MSc and PhD Topics, please find here an overview of the ongoing topics of our MSc and PhD students as well as suggestions for open topics. We welcome any ideas for MSc Theses in the scope of the group's work and expertise!

Ongoing MSc Topics:

  • Beatrice Ciancarella: "Seasonal predictions of European Dunkelflaute events" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • Arnaz Dholakia: "Climate extreme drivers of German agriculture production shocks" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert and Dr. Benjamin Blanz)
  • Mayesha Fairooz: "Indian Ocean marine heat waves driven by climate modes" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • Maeve Mayer: "Understanding the 2023/24 North Atlantic marine heat wave" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert and Dr. Benjamin Blanz)
  • Noah Ritter: "Separating source of uncertainty of future climate extremes" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Yigit Uckan: "Link between blocking in different locations and temperature extremes" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Leonie Wolf: "Climate dependence of biosphere functional diversity" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert and Dr. Philipp Porada)

Ongoing PhD Topics:

  • Victoria Dietz: "Attribution of European climate extremes to internal variability modes" (principarl supervision by Dr. Wolfgang Müller, co-supervision by Dr. Laura Suarez-Gutierrez and Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • Vidur Mithal: "Earth system modelling of extreme climate impacts on agriculture" (principal supervision by Dr. Leonard Bochert, co-supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Aiswarya Pavanan: "The impact of extreme climate events on human capital" (principal supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Alexander Rischmüller: "Bayesian modeling of extreme precipitation in Germany" (principal supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Josipa Županić: "Using km-scale Global Climate Model Simulations to Study the Physical Impacts of Climate Change for Informing Adaptation Strategies" (principal supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann, co-supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner)
  • Maša Avakumovic: "Modelling and simulating extreme events in the climate system" (preliminary) (principal supervision by Prof. Dr. Jörn Behrens, co-supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Eduardo Alastrué de Asenjo: "The impact of AMOC variations on European climate and extremes" (principal supervision by Prof. Dr. Johanna Baehr, co-supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)

Open MSc Topics:

  • "Heat stress indicators and their relevance for studies on the health impacts of climate change" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • "Representation of dry days in km-scale models" (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod and Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Importance of km-scale model resolution for impacts" (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod and Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Atmospheric drivers of German Bight storm surges" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • "Decadal climate extreme predictions" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • "Ocean-atmosphere compound events" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • "Improving seasonal predictions for US agriculture using physical process understanding" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • "Windows of opportunity in decadal climate predictions" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert)
  • "Climate extreme impacts on Swedish forestry and their change under global warming" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert and Dr. Thomas Pugh @ Lund University)
  • "Climate extreme storylines using high-resolution climate models" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner, Dr. Leonard Borchert and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • "Heatwave properties in high-resolution models" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Representation of extremes in km-scale models" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Discriminate climate observations, predictions, and projections using (explainable) machine learning methods" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Daily temperature increments in models and observations" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Genealogy from the first coupled models to the latest km-scale models" (supervision by Dr. Lukas Brunner; more information here)
  • "Heavy rainfall after long-term droughts can be devastating (e.g. Emilia-Romagna 2023): How will this type of compound event change in a warmer climate?" (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod)
  • "Mapping the occurrence of rain-on-snow events over Europe using a new high-resolution reanalysis” (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod)
  • "Can stochastic weather generators capture variability in rainfall extremes? A perfect model experiment involving pyraingen and the CRCM5-LE” (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod)
  • "The use and usefulness of extreme weather event attribution for litigation studies"
  • "Precipitation and wind extremes due to intense small-scale energy fluxes (e.g. explosive midlatitude cyclone, convection)"
  • "Impact of the Southern Ocean cooling on land extreme events over the northern hemisphere"

Completed MSc Topics:

  • Meredith Avison: "Seasonal Predictability of Agriculturally Relevant Compound Drought and Heat Events in the Central United States" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Dante T. Castro Garro: "Extreme hot and cold events in Peru and their effects on mortality" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann and Dr. Hartmut Borth)
  • Naivy Montserrat Jimenez Quiterio: "Effect of climate variability and extremes on heating and cooling energy demand in Canada" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann and Dr. Lukas Brunner)
  • Marc Lennartz: "Exploring Hourly Rainfall Extremes in a Changing Climate: A Comparative Analysis of sMEV and GEV Distributions Using COSMO-CLM Simulations over Germany” (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Böhner)
  • Ingrid Matanić: "Representation of meteorological droughts in a high-resolution regional climate model over Germany" (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Vidur Mithal: "Exploring the effect of disaster intensity on the economic impacts of weather- and climate-induced natural disasters" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann and Prof. Dr. Jakob Zscheischler)
  • Shuyue Qu: "Deploying Machine Learning to Analyze the Impact of Heatwaves on City Health in Chicago" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann and Prof. Dr. Daniel Horton)
  • Yuting Wu: "A machine learning approach to assess the coffee yield development yet to come – Identifying meteorological drivers and their future projections - A case study for Brazil" (supervision by Dr. Benjamin Poschlod and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Anne Wulfhorst: "Extreme Event Attribution as a Case Study: How do climate scientists debate and define the roles of science in society?" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Leocardia Yaxia Zheng: "Decadal Predictions of Hot-Dry Compound Events" (supervision by Dr. Leonard Borchert and Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)
  • Josipa Županić: "Compound wind-precipitation extremes in Europe in the CRCM5-LE" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann and Dr. Benjamin Poschlod)