Ricarda Winkelmann is Professor of Climate System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and University of Potsdam in Germany. She is one of the members of the Earth Commission, whose mission is to assess the latest science to underpin the development of science-based targets for systems like land, water, and biodiversity.Trained as a mathematician and theoretical physicist in Germany and the United States, Winkelmann received her PhD with distinction from PIK and University of Potsdam in 2012. For her thesis addressing the future sea-level contribution from Antarctica, she was awarded the young scientists prize for outstanding publications by the Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam. After completing her PhD, she continued to work on issues related to the long-term stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet as visiting investigator at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford.
Her research focuses on tipping elements in the Earth System, Antarctic ice dynamics and future sea-level rise. Winkelmann has been co-developer of the open-source Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) since 2010. She participated in research expeditions PS77 (2011) as well as PS111 (2018) to the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. She leads the research group on ice-sheet dynamics in Antarctica at PIK and is also Co-Leader of the FutureLab on Earth Resilience in the Anthropocene together with Dr. Jonathan Donges, as well as Lead-PI of the Leibniz research group DominoES on the interaction of tipping elements in the Earth System. In 2017, Winkelmann received the Karl-Scheel-Prize by the German Physical Society for her achievements in the field of ice dynamics, as well as the E-Learning Award by the University of Potsdam for her innovative teaching approaches. She was recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award 2017 by the Cryospheric Division of the European Geosciences Union. In 2018, Academics and ZEIT Publishing Group named her Young Scientist of the Year.
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