From pole to pole: Cruising the roof of our planet searching for an unseen microbial life

Dr. Battin will give us insight into his research and expeditions during the conference. He is fascinated by the microbial life in high-mountain streams and the relevance of these ecosystems for the global carbon cycle. This research gains importance as high-mountain ecosystems figure among the most vulnerable to climate change.

Tom Battin has published over 130 scientific papers unraveling physical, chemical, and biological processes driving stream ecosystems. Over the last five years, he has organized twelve expeditions to the world’s major mountain ranges to study glacier-fed streams. He has pioneered the field of fluvial biogeosciences for which he has been awarded the prestigious Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal of the European Geosciences Union.

• More information about the project

• More information about the panelist: Dr. Battin is a professor in environmental sciences at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. He also is a member of the Conseil d’Administration at LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology). Before he took his position as professor in Switzerland, he was Professor in Limnology at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is fascinated by the microbial life in high-mountain streams and the relevance of these ecosystems for the global carbon cycle. This research gains importance as high-mountain ecosystems figure among the most vulnerable to climate change. Tom Battin has published more than 130 scientific papers unraveling physical, chemical and biological processes that drive stream ecosystems. Over the last five years, he has organised twelve expeditions to the world’s major mountain ranges to study glacier-fed streams.He has pioneered the field of fluvial biogeosciences for which he has been awarded the prestigious Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He also worked in Greenland and Alaska.

- in collaboration with Polar.lu