Prof. Heinz Wanner 

Prof. Heinz Wanner, Institute of Geography and NCCR Climate, University of Berne

Heinz Wanner studied Geography and Climatology in Bern and Grenoble. After his doctoral thesis dealing with fog and cold air dynamics over the Swiss Plateau his work was centered on synoptic climatology, mesoscale dynamics and mountain meteorology. In 1981 and 1982 he worked as a postdoc at the Atmospheric Science Departement of the Colorado State University in Fort Collins and as a deputy operations director of the GARP mountain subprogramme ALPEX. After 1982 Heinz Wanner's research was centered on airflow and air pollution (mainly photochemical smog) over complex terrain. After his nomination as a full professor in 1988 he was the co-director of the Swiss POLLUMET (air POLLUtion and METeorology) research programme. In the early 1990s Heinz Wanner started a new research activity dealing with annual to century scale climate variability of the Atlantic - European area and the Northern Hemisphere. Based on multi-proxy reconstructions and model output from GCMs the behaviour of important climate modes (e.g., the North Atlantic Oscillation) is studied. The so-called LOTRED (LOng Term REconstruction and Diagnostics) approach is based on the combined synoptic interpretation of reconstructed SSTs, air pressure, temperature and precipitation fields during the last 500-4000 years.