Kirsten Zickfeld

Kirsten Zickfeld is a Distinguished Professor of Climate Science in the Geography Department at Simon Fraser University, which she joined in September 2010. From 2008 to 2010 she was a Research Scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis in Victoria, BC. She holds a PhD in physics (2004) from the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Dr. Zickfeld’s primary research interests are in the long-term effects of human activities on climate. She is internationally recognized for her research on the irreversibility of human-induced climate change and carbon budgets consistent with climate targets. Her current research program includes investigation of the effects of negative emission technologies on the global carbon cycle and climate. Dr. Zickfeld has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, several of which in top-ranking journals. Her research has been cited more than 5,200 times, and has an h-index and i10-index of 34 and 53, respectively.

Dr. Zickfeld served as Lead Author of the Special Report on the Global Warming of 1.5 degrees of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is a Lead Author of the upcoming IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. She also serves on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Carbon Project. Dr. Zickfeld was awarded the President’s Prize of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and SFU President’s Prize for Leadership in Sustainability.

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