Friederike Wagner-Cremer

Prof. Friederike Wagner-Cremer is a Professor of Physical Geography and Head of the Department of Geosciences at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on paleoecology, paleoclimate, and climate-vegetation feedback mechanisms. She specializes in developing proxies to reconstruct past environmental conditions, such as atmospheric CO2 levels, spring season dynamics, and plant physiological responses to environmental changes.

Her work integrates field studies, experimental plant growth analyses, and sedimentary archive analyses to understand long-term environmental shifts. Key projects include studies on Lake Ohrid’s evolutionary history, climate-vegetation interactions in the Arctic, and the impact of anthropogenic activities on tropical Andean lakes. She leads initiatives like the Delta Climate Centre and the PaleOpen COST Action, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

Prof. Wagner-Cremer has contributed to over 100 peer-reviewed articles, with recent work emphasizing Quaternary climate dynamics, proxy development, and sustainable futures. Her awards include the SERC Endowment Eminent Scholar Program (2013). She supervises PhD students in topics like ancient plant lineages’ responses to CO2 and Arctic lake methane cycling. Teaching includes courses on paleobiology, paleoenvironments, and Earth system interactions.