Kai Kornhuber
Co-Chair, Future Earth Risk KAN
Kai Kornhuber leads the Extreme Weather and Climate Dynamics research theme in the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Within this theme he is advancing the understanding and modelling of high impact and compound extreme weather events to provide robust estimates of complex and cascading climate risks under present conditions and future climate scenarios. In his role as an adjunct Professor of Climate at the Columbia Climate School he teaches complex climate risks at Columbia University in New York and serves as an adjunct Ass. Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He is an associate Fellow at the German Council on foreign Relations (DGAP), regularly providing his expertise to political discourse around adaptation and mitigation strategies. He is a founding member of the Earth Network on “Sustainable and Resilient Living in an Era of Increasing Disasters” at Columbia’s Climate School. As affiliated scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), he leads the project PERSEVERE within the ClimXtreme Consortium that investigates the dynamics of extreme heat events. After completing receiving his doctorate in climate physics (summa cum laude) at the University of Potsdam and PIK, for which he was awarded the Carl Ramsauer Award, he continued his research on the societal risks of current and future extreme weather and climate events as a postdoctoral researcher at the department for Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford and at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York. Kai is an associate Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations