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Sustainability and Climate Risks
Research UnitSustainability and Climate Risks

Photo: pixabay/Mylene2401

Aiswarya Thazhissery-Pavanan

Portrait Aiswarya Pavanan

Photo: Aiswarya Thazhissery-Pavanan

PhD Student

Address

University of Hamburg
Climate Extremes
Grindelberg 5
20144 Hamburg

Office

GB 5
Room: 105

Contact

Tel: +49 40 42838 7028

Aiswarya has an integrated Master's in 'Climate Change Adaptation' from the Kerala Agricultural University. During her Master's thesis, she investigated the livelihood vulnerability of female smallholder farmers exposed to extreme weather events in the Thrissur district of Kerala. She joined the research group "Climate Extremes" through the prestigious IMPRS fellowship offered by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. She is currently investigating the impacts of climate extremes on human capital, particularly focusing on children's education.

  • PhD Topic: "The impact of changes in climate extremes on human capital and socio-economic development over time" (supervision by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann)

Research interests

Human capital has progressively been acknowledged as a crucial contributor to national economies in recent studies. However, much less is known about the ways in which it would be impacted by climate change and associated climate extremes. We intend to construct a statistical model to relate the subnational PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test scores with regional temperature extremes, shedding light on how climate extremes could impact the skill accumulation in school children. Once we establish a clear relationship between climate extremes and children’s education, our subsequent goal would be projecting these impacts into the future under various climate scenarios. Further, we plan to analyze the long-term repercussions of these impacts on socio-economic development. To facilitate this analysis, we will employ Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs). In doing so, we aim to provide valuable insights into the dynamics of human capital in an era marked by climate change, offering a foundation for informed policy decisions and sustainable development strategies.