Wolfgang Schöner

‘I am a professor of physical geography at the University of Graz with a focus on climate change and impacts in mountain regions. Within the project Snow2Rain I have the role of project leader. The project is an initiative of two research groups of the Austrian Polar Research Institute (APRI).

After studying geography as well as meteorology and geophysics at the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck, I started working as an assistant at the Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics at the University of Vienna in 1991. In 1995 I moved to the Climate Department of the Austrian Weather Service, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), where I focused on climatological and glaciological research, especially in the area of the Sonnblick Observatory (Austrian Alps). In the same year, I completed my PhD studies on "Pollutant deposition in a high alpine seasonal snowcover". From 2009 to 2014 I was head of the department "Climate Impacts" at ZAMG and was also deputy head of the Sonnblick Observatory. Besides mountain research, climate and glacier change in the Arctic region is a particular interest of my research. In 2007-09 Austria participated in the International Polar Year, for which I coordinated the Austrian contribution together with Andreas Richter from University of Vienna. In 2014, I received an appointment at the University of Graz. Currently, I am also director of the Austrian Polar Research Institute.’