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The German physicist Friederike Otto is honored for her work by the journal Nature
Photo: Joakim Stahl / SvD / TT / IMAGO
The traditional journal »Nature« honors ten people each year who have shaped and influenced science around the world through their commitment and work.
A well-known German will be among the top ten in 2021: climate researcher Friederike Otto.
more on the subject
Climate pioneers: Friederike Otto discovered global warming in the weatherBy Viola Kiel
The magazine paid tribute to Otto's commitment to determining the influence of global warming on certain extreme weather conditions.
Otto is a physicist.
She teaches and researches at the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London.
Extreme weather events are increasing due to the climate crisis
The scientist, who was born in Kiel, has set herself the task of calculating whether the climate crisis will make extreme weather events such as heat waves, storms, floods or droughts more likely - and by how much.
To this end, she co-founded a new branch of research: so-called attribution research.
more on the subject
Extreme Weather Congress: The Coming DisastersBy Viola Kiel
The method of attribution or association research is statistics.
Experts compare current weather data with data from a parallel world.
This parallel world only differs in that there are no man-made greenhouse gases in it.
The discrepancy between the data from our world and that parallel world represents the contribution of climate change.
There is also a technical reason why attribution research is a relatively young discipline: such calculations, which run over long periods of time, require high computing power.
Together with the Dutch scientist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Otto launched the World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative.
The aim of this initiative is to "provide solid assessments of the post-event role of climate change".
This year, the WWA was able to demonstrate the influence of climate change on the heat wave in the USA, among other things.
The group also investigated the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.
The criticism from colleagues - falls silent
The approach of trying to calculate the influence of climate change on weather extremes met with criticism from colleagues at the beginning, according to the journal "Nature".
But that has changed.
The approach is now seen as extremely robust.
In the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from August, the influence of global warming on extreme weather is now mentioned as a "fixed fact".
According to the magazine, this science has "the potential to advance government measures and promote climate justice."
Unsurprisingly, the corona pandemic was decisive for some of the other honors:
Bioinformatician
Tulio de Oliveira is one of
the ten people
honored
by
»
Nature«
.
The director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp) in South Africa is not only considered a co-discoverer of the beta variant of the coronavirus, but also excelled in discovering the new virus variant Omikron.
The head of Unaids, the United Nations HIV program,
Winnie Byanyima
was also honored.
She had emerged as a leading critic of affluent countries and pharmaceutical companies who ignored calls for a more equitable distribution of corona vaccines.
Many low and middle income countries have not been able to protect their people.
The
British health authority's
epidemiologist
Meaghan Kall
has converted scientific reports into easy-to-understand social media posts, helping to spread important information about Covid-19.
The head of the US FDA,
Janet Woodcock
, was also honored.
In addition to Otto, “Nature” also honored the activist and former UN special rapporteur for the rights of indigenous peoples,
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz,
for her commitment to combating the climate crisis
.
It is thanks in part to her that states have made great strides in recognizing the importance of indigenous peoples in protecting biodiversity.
Also on the list is the engineer
Zhang Rongqiao
, the chief developer of the Chinese Mars program.
With his help, China managed to successfully drop a reconnaissance vehicle on Mars in May - the second country in the world after the USA.
The AI researcher
Timnit Gebru
, the computer scientist
Guillaume Cabanac
and the AI researcher
John Jumper were also
honored.
vki / dpa