Prof. Dr. Jürg Luterbacher is Chair for Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change at the Department of Geography, Justus-Liebig University Giessen. He studied physical geography, climatology and meteorology at the University of Bern (M.A.) and achieved his Diploma in Geography (equivalent M.Sc.) in 1995. In 1999, he finished his Ph D degree (Dr. phil. nat.), which was awarded by the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Bern, followed by the completion of his Habilitation (postdoctoral lecture qualification) in 2005.

From 2008, he has been Head Regional to the Continental Climate Dynamics group within the Oeschger Centre of Climate Change Research (OCCR) and work package leader at Paleoclimatology NCCR Climate (www.nccr-climate.unibe.ch), University of Bern. From 2001 to 2007 he was Deputy Head of the Climatology and Meteorology group at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern as well as researcher within the two EU projects SOAP (Simulations, Observations & Palæoclimatic data: climate variability over the last 500 years) and EMULATE (European and North Atlantic daily to MULtidecadal climATE variability).

His research areas are: Mid to late Holocene climate change, past and present climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere, North Atlantic European/Mediterranean area, large scale circulation and connection to weather and climate extremes (heat waves, floodings, storms), impacts on society and environment, climate dynamics and synoptical climatology, strong interdisciplinary research. He was contributing author in the 4th IPCC Assessment Report of 2007 (Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Climate Change Science). From late 2008 – 2013 he is working on the Large Scale Integrated EU-Project ACQWA (“Assessing Climatic change and impacts on the Quantity and quality of Water”) within the 7th EU Framework programme.