prof. dr. Dim Coumou

Full Professor, Faculty of Science, Water and Climate Risk

Personal information

My prime research interest is understanding how global warming affects the number and intensity of extreme weather events like heat waves, heavy rainfall and persistent droughts. I use a variety of methods, including advanced statistical analyses, climate models and novel machine learning techniques, to gain new insights. I hold a second position at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and I coordinate Climate Data Science research between IVM and KNMI. Working with high-level stakeholders (e.g. the World Bank) ensures that my research focusses on the most relevant extremes, i.e. those with the highest risks for society. I have authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, with several in top-ranking journals, the IPCC 5th Assessment Report, 3 World Bank reports and several book chapters. I am a Web of Science highly cited scientist which reflects that I published multiple highly-cited papers ranking in the top 1% of their field,

For the latest, please visit my groups research pages: climateextremes.eu

Expertise

Extreme weather, climate change, atmosphere dynamics, climate models, complex system analyses, causal inference in climate, predictability

Education

2003-2008: PhD in Natural Sciences, ETH-Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

1995-2001: MSc in Geophysics, University of Utrecht, Utrecht Netherlands

Teaching

BSc Honours course ’Climate Change’
MSc course ’Climate Hydrological Processes’

Grants

2020 Horizon-2020, vice-coordinator Extreme Events: Artificial Intelligence for Detection ad Attribution (XAIDA), €700k
JPI-AXIS, co-PI, Land Management for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation (LAMACLIMA), €250
H2020, co-PI, Remote Climate Effects and their Impact on European sustainability, Policyand Trade (RECEIPT), €300k
2018 Horizon-2020, co-PI, Tipping Points in the Earth System (TiPES), EUR300k
2018 German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), co-PI, Climate Change and Extreme Events (ClimExtreme), EUR 250k
2018 Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), co-PI, Improvement of subseasonal probabilistic forecasts of European high-impact weather events using machine learning techniques (IMPRINT), granted EUR 250k
2018 European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF), co-PI, Operational Sectoral Information System for the Wind Storm Insurance Sector, granted EUR 50k
2017 Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Personal VIDI-award, Persistent Summer Extremes (PERSIST), granted EUR 800k
2016 Belmont-JPI Climate, PI, Globally Observed Teleconnections in a Hierarchy of Atmosphere Models (GOTHAM), granted EUR 413k
2013 German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Personal Junior Research Group grant, Model- and observation-based analysis of the drivers behind variability in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns and their influence on extreme weather events (SACRE-X), granted EUR 817k
2012 German Research Foundation (DFG), personal grant, Stability of atmospheric circulation patterns and its relation to extreme events, granted EUR 162k
2011 Climate-KIC, public outreach project on Extreme Weather and Climate Change (www.aufgeheizt.org), start-up incubator facilities (in-kind funding) + EUR 10k
2011 Volkswagen Foundation, PI on science outreach proposal "From a Dialogue on Extremes, to Extreme Dialogues", granted EUR 75k

Ancillary activities