About
Prof. Harald Bugmann is a Full Professor of Forest Ecology at ETH Zurich's Department of Environmental Systems Science. He previously held roles as Assistant Professor (1999–2004) and Extraordinary Professor of Forest Ecology. His research focuses on long-term dynamics of forest ecosystems under environmental change, particularly in mountain forests and disturbance regimes like wildfires. He contributed to the IPCC and led projects under the IGBP's Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) and Mountain Research Initiative (MRI).
Education: PhD in Terrestrial Ecology from ETH Zurich (1994), M.Sc. in Limnology, and studies in Systematics/Ecological Biology. Awards include the ETH Medal for his PhD and MSc theses, and the Swiss Limnology-Hydrobiology Award (1990).
Research Interests: Climate change impacts, forest resilience, and ecological modeling. Key contributions include studies on drought-driven tree mortality, nitrogen's role in soil carbon dynamics, and participatory scenario processes for climate adaptation.
Awards:
- ETH Medal for PhD thesis (1994)
- Swiss Limnology-Hydrobiology Award (1990)
- ETH Medal for MSc thesis (1989)
Grants & Projects: Leads the MainWood project on sustainable forest use and collaborates on initiatives like the Forest Ecology Group (FE.ETHZ.CH).
Labs/Teams: Director of the Forest Ecology Group at ETH Zurich, involved in the Zurich Forest Lab (Waldlabor Zürich) for applied research and knowledge transfer.
