Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Understanding the Climate Crisis: The Role of Mathematics and Computer Science
How can mathematics and computer science help us understand the effects of climate change?
Both disciplines can contribute to open problems related to the climate crisis. For example:
What are the economic costs of climate change compared to emission reduction? What is the role of climate change in extreme weather events and climate hazards?
This panel discussion will debate the opportunities presented by and benefits of using mathematics and computer science in environmental science. One focus is on quantifying the impacts of climate change for society, for example due to extreme weather. Here, statistics can help to analyze the effect of human emissions on the occurrence of heat waves, heavy rainfall or storms. Special weather conditions in turn can lead to disastrous events like floods, wildfires or crop failures. To detect causes of such events, new studies have applied tools from statistics and machine learning.
Finally, the impacts of climate change affect countries around the world unequally, and recent research has tried to understand links between economic and social inequalities and climate change.
Finally, the discussion will also reflect on the role of climate science and climate scientists in society. What scientific findings are necessary to have a political or societal impact and fight the climate crisis?
Moderator: Maybritt Schillinger
Maybritt Schillinger is a PhD student at the Seminar for Statistics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. With a background in mathematics, she now collaborates with climate physicists and combines methods from statistics and machine learning to predict local climate. Besides her research, she is passionate about sharing her enthusiasm for the intersection of applied mathematics and climate science with school students or the general public.
Beatrice Ellerhoff
Beatrice Ellerhoff is a physicist and did her doctorate on the modeling and analysis of temperature fluctuations to improve the predictability of extremes. As an employee of the German Weather Service, she is dedicated to the development of an integrated greenhouse gas monitoring system for Germany. She actively communicates science and has, among other things, written a book on quantum computers.
Aglaé Jezequel
Aglaé Jezequel is a climate scientist at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) in Paris. Her research revolves around the influence of climate on extreme weather events (mainly heatwaves and droughts) in Europe including extreme event attribution, storylines of plausible extreme events in a warming world and the link between hazard, vulnerability, exposure and impact through the crossmapping of meteorological and social datasets. Her work is multidisciplinary and she has collaborated with jurists, geographers, social scientists, impact scientists as well as artists and communicants. One of her key interests is to better understand how climate data is perceived and used outside of laboratories. She also taught at École normale supérieure and École nationale des ponts et chaussées in Paris.
Jakob Zscheischler
Following his diploma in Mathematics in 2010, Jakob Zscheischler conducted his PhD on the interface of machine learning and Earth system sciences at two Max Planck Institutes. After several years of research in Switzerland, he joined the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in 2020. Since 2023, he has held a joint professorship with TU Dresden and since 2024, he has led the Department of Compound Environmental Risks at UFZ. His main research focus is on compound weather and climate events.
The 11th Heidelberg Laureate Forum took place from September 22–27, 2024. #HLF24
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) is an annual networking conference where 200 carefully selected young researchers in mathematics and computer science spend a week interacting with the laureates of the most prestigious awards in their disciplines: the Abel Prize, ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing, Fields Medal, IMU Abacus Medal and Nevanlinna Prize.
The opinions expressed in the videos do not necessarily reflect the views of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation or any other person or associated institution involved in the making and distribution of these videos. More information on the Heidelberg Laureate Forum:
More information on the Heidelberg Laureate Forum: heidelberg-laureate-forum.org
Follow us on social media!
Blog: scilogs.spektrum.de/hlf
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/heidelberg-laureate-forum-foundation
X/Twitter: twitter.com/HLForum
Instagram: instagram.com/hlforum
Facebook: facebook.com/HeidelbergLaureateForum
Understanding the Climate Crisis: The Role of Mathematics and Computer Science
How can mathematics and computer science help us understand the effects of climate change?
Both disciplines can contribute to open problems related to the climate crisis. For example:
What are the economic costs of climate change compared to emission reduction? What is the role of climate change in extreme weather events and climate hazards?
This panel discussion will debate the opportunities presented by and benefits of using mathematics and computer science in environmental science. One focus is on quantifying the impacts of climate change for society, for example due to extreme weather. Here, statistics can help to analyze the effect of human emissions on the occurrence of heat waves, heavy rainfall or storms. Special weather conditions in turn can lead to disastrous events like floods, wildfires or crop failures. To detect causes of such events, new studies have applied tools from statistics and machine learning.
Finally, the impacts of climate change affect countries around the world unequally, and recent research has tried to understand links between economic and social inequalities and climate change.
Finally, the discussion will also reflect on the role of climate science and climate scientists in society. What scientific findings are necessary to have a political or societal impact and fight the climate crisis?
Moderator: Maybritt Schillinger
Maybritt Schillinger is a PhD student at the Seminar for Statistics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. With a background in mathematics, she now collaborates with climate physicists and combines methods from statistics and machine learning to predict local climate. Besides her research, she is passionate about sharing her enthusiasm for the intersection of applied mathematics and climate science with school students or the general public.
Beatrice Ellerhoff
Beatrice Ellerhoff is a physicist and did her doctorate on the modeling and analysis of temperature fluctuations to improve the predictability of extremes. As an employee of the German Weather Service, she is dedicated to the development of an integrated greenhouse gas monitoring system for Germany. She actively communicates science and has, among other things, written a book on quantum computers.
Aglaé Jezequel
Aglaé Jezequel is a climate scientist at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD) in Paris. Her research revolves around the influence of climate on extreme weather events (mainly heatwaves and droughts) in Europe including extreme event attribution, storylines of plausible extreme events in a warming world and the link between hazard, vulnerability, exposure and impact through the crossmapping of meteorological and social datasets. Her work is multidisciplinary and she has collaborated with jurists, geographers, social scientists, impact scientists as well as artists and communicants. One of her key interests is to better understand how climate data is perceived and used outside of laboratories. She also taught at École normale supérieure and École nationale des ponts et chaussées in Paris.
Jakob Zscheischler
Following his diploma in Mathematics in 2010, Jakob Zscheischler conducted his PhD on the interface of machine learning and Earth system sciences at two Max Planck Institutes. After several years of research in Switzerland, he joined the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in 2020. Since 2023, he has held a joint professorship with TU Dresden and since 2024, he has led the Department of Compound Environmental Risks at UFZ. His main research focus is on compound weather and climate events.
The 11th Heidelberg Laureate Forum took place from September 22–27, 2024. #HLF24
The Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) is an annual networking conference where 200 carefully selected young researchers in mathematics and computer science spend a week interacting with the laureates of the most prestigious awards in their disciplines: the Abel Prize, ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing, Fields Medal, IMU Abacus Medal and Nevanlinna Prize.
The opinions expressed in the videos do not necessarily reflect the views of the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation or any other person or associated institution involved in the making and distribution of these videos. More information on the Heidelberg Laureate Forum:
More information on the Heidelberg Laureate Forum: heidelberg-laureate-forum.org
Follow us on social media!
Blog: scilogs.spektrum.de/hlf
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/heidelberg-laureate-forum-foundation
X/Twitter: twitter.com/HLForum
Instagram: instagram.com/hlforum
Facebook: facebook.com/HeidelbergLaureateForum
