King Carl XVI Gustaf's professorship in environmental science has been awarded to James Kirchner. He is a researcher in the physics of environmental systems in Switzerland and will spend his year as a visiting professor at SLU in Umeå. There he will help solve the riddle of why forests grow more slowly.
- I was very surprised, it's not every day you get a letter from the King of Sweden! says James Kirchner, who was well aware of the fierce competition for the professorship.
It is King Carl XVI Gustaf 50th Anniversary Fund for Science, Technology and the Environment that has appointed a chair in environmental science for the 30th time. The choice of James Kirchner is due to the fact that his research area concerns issues that are crucial for Swedish forests and forestry. James Kirchner is an expert on water in forest landscapres and how changes in precipitation and snowmelt affect both groundwater and forest growth.
- Professor Kirchner's scientific work and leadership is exceptional. Together with him, we hope to find out how climate change affects forest growth and water scarcity, says Hjalmar Laudon, Professor of Forest Landscape Biogeochemistry at SLU, who was involved in writing the application for James Kirchner to become a visiting professor.
James Kirchner is Professor of Environmental Systems Physics at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. During his year as a visiting professor in Sweden, James Kirchner will work at SLU's experimental station in Svartberget and conduct research in the Krycklan catchment.
- My research group has developed new methods for analyzing hydrological data and new techniques for interpreting variations in naturally occurring stable water isotopes, and we hope that these can shed new light on the hydrological functioning of northern landscapes, says James Kirchner.
He is looking forward to getting started on the work, which will run through 2025 and 2026.
- SLU is internationally recognized for its contributions to hydrology in northern landscapes, and Svartberget and Krycklan have outstanding staff and a unique research infrastructure. I look forward to future collaborations, says James Kirchner.
