Dr. Cornelia Schwierz

From February 2009 to December 2011 I worked at the Seminar for Statistics, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zurich, and I was part of the Team for Statistical Consulting. My particular interest is in applying my expertise as physicist and atmospheric/climate scientist to environmental problems.

Half of my time I spend at the Institute for Terrestrial Ecosystems (ITES) in the research group for Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics (STEP) on a project on Robust Kriging (see below).

Short Curriculum Vitae >>

Teaching

• Current Lectures at ETH [link]
• Courses on Statistical Software [link]

Publications

• List of Publications >>
  
• PhD: Interactions of Greenland-scale orography and extra-tropical synoptic-scale flow, PhD No.14356, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, 2001 [abstract]
• Diploma: Asymmetrischer Transport und Gedächtniseffekte, Diploma thesis, Technical University of Munich, Inst. for Theoretical Physics T34 (then Prof. Schwabl), 1997

Research Interests

Atmospheric and Climate Sciences

• Short-term Climate Variability: Atmospheric Blocking
• Predictability of synoptic systems and extreme events
• The Atmospheric Water Cycle: Tropospheric Transport, Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting
• Fluid-dynamical questions: Jets, Vortices and Waves, Dynamics of Mountain Flow
  

Statistical Sciences

• Geo-Statistics
• Time series analyses
• Data assimilation
  

Current Projects

• Robust Kriging: "Entwicklung robuster geostatistischer Methoden zur räumlichen Analyse und Kartierung von Bodendaten für den flächenhaften Bodenschutz" funded by BAFU. Together with Armin Keller (Agroscope ART, NABO, Zürich) and  Andreas Papritz (STEP, ETH Zürich)

• THORPEX: A World Weather Research Programme. "The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment". Predictability and Dynamical Processes Working Group. PhD student: Arwen Twitchett (NERC quota award).

Former PhD students and Projects

• Jenkner, Johannes (now at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CA).
  Project: Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting, SNF project and associated to DFG SPP 1167, with S. Dierer at MeteoTest.
  Thesis: - Jenkner, Johannes. Stratified verifications of quantitative precipitation forecasts over Switzerland. ETH (2008). doi:10.3929/ethz-a-005698830.

• Olivia Martius (now at University of Bern) and Mischa Croci-Maspoli (now at MeteoSwiss).
  Project: NCCR Climate I Swiss National Centre for Competence in Research, Project 2.3 (Short-term climate variability: Dynamics and Processes).
  Theses:
  - Martius, Olivia Caroline. Climatological aspects of wave disturbances on the tropopause and links to extreme weather in Europe. ETH (2005). doi:10.3929/ethz-a-005062214.
  - Croci-Maspoli, Mischa. Climatological investigations of atmospheric blocking - A dynamically-based statistical analysis. ETH (2005). doi:10.3929/ethz-a-005062167.

• Atmospheric Transport and Water Cycle with Harald Sodemann and Heini Wernli. 
  Thesis: - Sodemann, Harald. Tropospheric transport of water vapour: Lagrangian and Eulerian perspectives. ETH (2006). doi:10.3929/ethz-a-005215132.

Further Interests

In a wider context, I am interested in the socio-economic implications of high-impact weather and climate change and sustainability issues. Some interesting links:

- Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) in Leeds

- The "Weather and Society * Integrated Studies" WAS*IS

- NCAR Societal Impacts programm

- Gapminder - a thought provoking view on the world

- Worldmapper and Worldpopulations