Climate Scientist Daniela Jacob Becomes New Head of The Climate Service Center 2.0

Dr. Daniela Jacob has taken over as Acting Director of the Climate Service Center 2.0 as of June 1st. She follows Dr. Guy Brasseur, who headed the Climate Service Center since its inception in 2009. The scientific service institution on climate change in Hamburg is an independent establishment at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht.

Daniela Jacob

The meteorologist isn’t entering new territory: Daniela Jacob has been leading the “Climate System” department of the Climate Service Center since 2010 and has been serving as Deputy Director since October 2013. She has now taken over as acting head. “We’re happy to have found a designated expert and an experienced successor to Guy Brasseur in climate services,“ says Dr. Wolfgang Kaysser, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht. “Our special thanks go to Guy Brasseur, a pioneer at the Climate Service Center, who developed this establishment into a successful blueprint for climate services on which we, in Hamburg, and many other facilities worldwide can build." At the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, among other places, Guy Brasseur will still engage in basic questions concerning climate change in the future.

”As we now begin phase two, Daniela Jacob will serve as an important driving force for new projects and will further the structural adaptation of the Climate Service Center 2.0 and its future emphases, ” continues Kaysser. As one of the primary authors of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report on Climate Change, she possesses rich experience and is well connected within the world of climate science.

This expertise is an important requirement for her new position because the Climate Service Center 2.0 is still the main contact for all climate change related questions and for information on adaptation strategies. The center is intended as an information and consultation platform for decision makers within the spheres of politics and economics as well as for opinion leaders. Along with the new director appointment, the scope of services and products will be re-outlined. In particular, development of consulting service prototypes for politicians, government agencies and the economic sector will become more prominent.

The Climate Service Center Becomes Climate Service Center 2.0

As of June 1st, the Climate Service Center project phase is officially over. The newly given name, Climate Service Center 2.0, is a visible sign of this reorientation and of the future institutional financing that stems from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht. The name alludes to the second phase of the center as well as the climate policy target of two degrees. The acronym will no longer be used in the future.

“I look forward to my new task,” explains Daniela Jacob. “As we now begin the second phase, we wish to provide different decision makers with even better support for our scientifically informed products and services. The need for decision making knowledge in climate change adaptation strategies continues to increase.” A new catalogue of services, for example, with prototypes or climate service products can be developed.

One example of such a prototype is what Daniela Jacob calls the “City Building Blocks.“ The Climate Service Center uses this prototype to support cities and communities in adapting to the challenges as well as the opportunities that accompany climate change. This flexible tool provides city-specific climate information, advice or recommended courses of action.
Daniela Jacob (52) developed the scientific computer model REMO, with which the regional climate scenarios are calculated. The mother of one daughter, Jacob studied meteorology in Darmstadt and completed her dissertation in Hamburg. She has been a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg since 1993.

The Climate Service Center 2.0 is an independent scientific establishment within the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Centre for Materials and Coastal Research. From June 2014, it will be financed through the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, stemming from the program-oriented sponsorship of the Helmholtz Society. The center will remain at its Chilehaus location in Hamburg, where there are currently twenty-nine scientists studying climate change, climate and adaptation.

The Climate Research Center was founded in 2009 by the federal government as a national research-oriented service establishment focusing on the subject of climate change and as an essential element of the “High-Tech Strategy on Climate Protection.” The center was founded by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht and sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through project funds as a bridge between science and application