Research Group: Climate Epidemiology and Public Health

The first heat wave of the year brought again attention to our research group. Prof. Ana M. Vicedo Cabrera gave an interview about health impacts of climate change and heatwaves on the Swiss population. Read the interview here (paywall).

The first edition of the CEPH annual project was implemented: in a two-day retreat where we joined forces to tackle a shared scientific challenge. Two very intensive and very fun days! Read more about it here.

We made an exciting excursion to the weather station on Jungfraujoch. From 25°C in the lowlands to about 3°C on the top of Europe, 3580 m a.s.l., and an impressive view of the Jungfrau glacier – quite a ride both physically and mentally!

Sam received a short travel grant from the University of Bern for a 6-week research stay at IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis). He visited the Integrated Climate Impacts group led by Carl Schleussner. They worked together on building so-called "end-to-end" risk assessments by combining our epidemiological methods with their risk assessment models to quantify the health impacts of a broad set of future climate scenarios.

We participated in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Annual Meeting, presenting several posters. We noticed growing interest in the climate community in public health and epidemiology, with packed rooms when we presented our ongoing work on climate and health!

Our new study, led by @Sujung Lee and @Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera, shows that while extreme heat increased emergency hospital admissions by 12% overall, vulnerability is far from equal. Targeted, data-driven interventions are urgently needed to protect our most vulnerable aging populations.  Find the article here.

Ana, Coral, Emma, and Sam attended the international conference on climate impacts in Uppsala, organised by Climes - Swedish Centre for Impacts of Climate Extremes. A nice occasion to present our research and meet with colleagues.

We welcome our new Data Manager, Maria Pyrina, PhD. Maria has a scientific background in physics and atmospheric sciences, and her PhD research focused on applying statistical methods to reconstruct paleoclimate conditions over the last millennium, alongside evaluations of CMIP simulations and paleoclimate models. Welcome Maria!

Read more here.

Our PhD candidate Sujung Lee won the Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award 2025 by the European Geosciences Union for her PICO entitled “Who is more vulnerable among the most vulnerable? Assessing vulnerability profiles to heat in older adults in Switzerland”. Congratulations, Su!

Several members of the research group attended the ENBEL conference in Tallinn, Estonia. Connecting Health and Climate Change, the transdisciplinary conference provided the ideal opportunity to present our work through poster, oral, and keynote presentations. Three days of inspiring exchange, discussions, and social get-togethers!

New publication on the risk of hospitalization associated with foehn winds and temperature in the mountainous region of Switzerland. Tino Schneidewind et al. showed that while foehn winds did not directly impact hospitalizations, they may contribute to an amplification of heat-related health risks, especially for females and older adults. Congratulations on the paper published in Environmental Epidemiology!

The Nacht der Forschung, a true knowledge party — and we were part of it! At our stand, visitors explored how climate change affects health: from mental well-being to the risks of droughts and humid heat. Kids (and adults!) could try climate-Jenga or dress a paper doll for different weather scenarios. And rumor has it, a sneaky mosquito was “infecting” people with disease stickers…

Several members of the research group attended the Beat the Heat Conference 2025, hosted this year by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel. Elisabeth Tadiri discussed the panel study in the Gambia of our SNSF Starting Grant ACTUAL project during the parallel session on understanding of health impacts and promotion of adaptation. Samuel Lüthi also presented a poster on storylines of worst case heat-mortality events in Western Europe.

Sujung Lee and Ana Vicedo-Cabrera attended this year’s EGU general assembly in Vienna.  Sujung presented a poster of her work on individual heat vulnerability profiles among older adults in Switzerland. Ana presented a work on storylines of worst-case heat mortality in Central Europe on behalf of Samuel Lüthi and gave an invited presentation on the latest developments in health impact attribution.

In April, we attended the Swiss Global Change Day in Bern. Our team member Elisabeth Tadiri won the Best Poster Award for her poster on extreme humid heat and health in Basse Su, The Gambia. Congrats!

Our team enjoyed a relaxing and memorable retreat in Neuchâtel. We kicked things off with a curling session, where some of us discovered hidden talent on the ice. Later, we explored the stunning Neuchâtel Castle on a guided tour. The day ended with a delicious dinner, where we shared great food and even better company.

Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera spoke with Uni Aktuell about the challenges she faced as a woman in academia.

SNSF Ambizione grant

Coral Salvador has received the SNSF Ambizione grant! Her project IGIA-SETH ("Unravelling the impacts of droughts on human health") aims to advance knowledge on the global impacts of droughts on health from a holistic approach and clarify mechanisms and vulnerabilites using robust methods in climate epidemiology. She will join us Summer 2025. Congratulations, Coral!

Members of our team joined the EGU conference in Vienna presenting their research and meeting researchers from different disciplines.

Our group members participated in the Swiss Global Change Day.  We are happy to announce that Lilian won the prize for the best poster. Congrats!

At the COP 28 world climate conference in Dubai, the global community is currently trying to limit human-made global warming. Where is climate change already making itself felt today? Four researchers from the University of Bern present climate facts 2023 in video statements. Read more

Recently, Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera gave an interview to the Library of Medicine of the University of Bern presenting her research. Here you find the Instagram post of the Library of Medicine.

Last October, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern granted the venia docendi along with the appointment as Associate Professor to Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera. See the presentation video in the Faculty Board Meeting of the 25^th of October 2023.

The members of the team presented several ongoing works in this international scientific event, and had a productive exchange with experts on climate change and health attending the event.

Sujung Lee, Adrienne Wehrli, Evan de Schrijver and Coral Salvador attended the 2nd workshop "Beat the heat", an event that gathered experts on urban heat in Switzerland.

Prof. Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera gave a keynote at the last plenary meeting of the Oeschger Center for Climate Change research of UniBe.

Vienna, 23.04.2023 - The European Geoscience Union's (EGU) annual conference in Vienna brought together over 15,000 participants from 107 countries for a week of scientific exchange and collaboration from the field of natural sciences, covering topics ranging from the deep interior of the Earth to the pressing challenges of climate change, the event proved to be a hub of diverse knowledge and expertise.

EGU Vienna, organized annually, provides a unique opportunity for scientists from different fields to collaborate and address the complexities inherent in their respective areas of study. From climate scientists to experts in extreme event attribution, insurance, and re-insurance, attendees recognized the need for cross-collaboration to tackle the multifaceted issues confronting the planet.

Our Climate Change and Health team actively engaged in various sessions, presenting our research and contributing to the conference's visibility. Among the notable contributions were:

Dr. Coral Salvador, a post-doctoral researcher from the Climate Change and Health team, shared her recent work investigating the impact of heat on acute cardiovascular disease events in adults aged 40-75 years residing in Madrid.

Sidharth Sivaraj presented results from his ongoing PhD project on the role of humidity in high heat-related mortality events. His study, part of the compound weather and climate events session, shed light on the emerging field of combined extreme events, such as extreme heat and humidity. Sidharth emphasized the importance of exchanging concepts and methodologies between multi-disciplinary fields to understand climate change's health impacts better and to provide a better understanding of the foundational challenges shared in both fields.

Prof. Dr. Ana Vicedo-Cabrera presented a groundbreaking study quantifying the footprint of human-induced climate change on heat-related deaths during Switzerland's scorching summer of 2022. This study, recently published in Environmental Research Letters, piqued the interest of diverse audiences from various fields due to the practical approach taken, highlighting the need for collaboration between climate scientists and epidemiologists.

Laura Paredes-Fortuny, a Ph.D. student at the Mediterranean Center for Environmental Studies, showcased her research on the impact of heatwave characteristics on mortality in Spanish cities. Her project, undertaken in collaboration with our Climate Change and Health team at ISPM (during the fall of 2022), garnered significant attention at the conference.

Dr. Evan de Schrijver received great interest in his poster presentation on "Nationwide Projections of Heat- and Cold-Related Mortality Impacts under Climate Change and Population Development Scenarios in Switzerland." Here, he showcased the novel approach of incorporating population development projections in future health impact modeling, a necessity yet a modelling approach that is still so often overlooked.

EGU Vienna emerged as a premier platform to foster connections beyond the field of epidemiology. The conference demonstrated the significance of collaborating with climate scientists and utilizing their data to estimate health impacts on society. The wealth of knowledge exchanged and the willingness to work together for a sustainable future was evident throughout the event.

For more information on the studies presented during the conference, please visit:

• Coral Salvador: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-9618
• Sidharth Sivaraj: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10996
• Ana Vicedo-Cabrera: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ace0d0
• Laura Paredes: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13633
• Evan de Schrijver: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-8779