Profiles of speakers at the Opening Session

Horst Böttger retired from ECMWF in 2008. He has a Diploma degree in Meteorology and a Doctorate in natural sciences from Free University (FU) in Berlin. He worked as research scientist at the FU from 1972 to 1979 and took up a position at ECMWF in 1979, first as senior scientist and Head of Met Operations Section, and since 1987 as Head of the Meteorological Division. His background is primarily in operational meteorology, synoptic meteorology and forecasting.

From 2008 to 2014 Horst Böttger chaired the EMS Committee on Meetings that is tasked to propose to Council the programme of future conferences and also take a strategic view the further development of the EMS Annual Meetings.

Horst Böttger is a member of the German Meteorological Society (DMG), the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS).

Renato R. Colucci is the President – and one of the founding members – of the Unione Meteorologica del Friuli Venezia Giulia (UMFVG), local host of EMS & ECAC 2016 in Trieste.

He holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences. Since 2001 he is a permanent staff of the Marine Science Institute of the National Research Council (Italy) dealing with meteo-marine networks and climatology. Since 2015 he is Adjunct Professor in glaciology at the University of Trieste and lecturer at the Doctoral School in Earth Science and Fluid Mechanics.

His recent research activity is devoted to the study of the cryosphere (glaciers and permafrost) and its interactions with the climate system. He participated in several scientific expeditions both in the Alps and outside of Europe (Cordillera Andina, 2012– Chile (EVK2-CNR); Karakorum-Pakistan, 2013 (EVK2-CNR); Antarctica, 2015 & 2016 (BAS & ENEA-PNRA).

He is active in scientific dissemination in the fields of meteorology, climatology and glaciology by organising conferences, meetings and courses.

Dr. Ingeborg Auer is head of the Climate Research department of ZAMG, the Austrian Weather Service. She is manager of the EUMETNET Support to Members Programme. One of her tasks is to represent EUMETNET in the Climate Programme of ECAM/ECAC conferences. She also represents Austria in the WMO Commission for Climatology.

She has a long experience in managing and coordinating climate and climate change related projects. One of her most important achievements is the realization of HISTALP, a database of long-term homogenized instrumental climate series of monthly and daily resolution covering the Greater Alpine Region. This dataset is the basis for a wide range of climate studies for a broader group of researchers but also stakeholders in the different countries.

Awards: The International Journal of Climatology Award of the Royal Meteorological Society 2007.

Colonel Silvio CAU is currently Head of the National Meteorological Service and in this function, he is the Italian Permanent Representative with WMO and member of WMO Executive Council. He also represents Italy in EUMETSAT and in ECMWF.

After obtaining a degree in physics, he was appointed as a Lieutenant in the Aeronautical Engineering Corps in 1985 where he specialized in Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics. Col. Cau served at the Regional Meteorological Centre of Milano Linate (1985-1991), at 5^ ATAF Met Division (1991-1993), at Flight Assistance and Telecommunication Inspectorate (1993-1999), at Meteorology General Office (1999-2001) and, from 2001 to 2007, he held various senior positions at Italian Joint Operational Headquarters (JOHQ), including the duty as JOHQ representative at the Defense Space Programs Committee.

From 2007 to 2009 he held the position of Head of Telecommunications Satellite Systems Branch at the 8th Division of the Informatics, Telematics and Advanced Technologies Directorate. From 2009 to 2013 he was Head of Satellite Remote Sensing Office at the Defence General Staff. From 2013 to 2015 he held the position of Director of the Joint Center for Satellite Remote Sensing.

Col. Cau obtained in 2004 a Master Degree in “International Strategic-Military Studies", a Master Degree in "Defense from chemical and biological weapons" and in 2007 a Master degree in" Satellites and Orbiting Platforms".

Luca Marchesi graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan and the University of Bologna. He also has a Executive Master's degree in Public Management from the SDA Bocconi Businesses School.

Luca Marchesi started his career in the environmental sector in 1994 with the Lombardy Regional Government. From 1999, he was a senior manager in the Lombardy Regional Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for a wide variety of activities: waste management, soil remediation, air pollution, sustainable development, permitting, environmental control on industrial activities, enforcement of European legislation and Civil Protection, including meteorological services. He was a consultant and trainee for many environmental Institutions in Italy, at national and local level.

Since January 2015 he is the Director General of Friuli Venezia Giulia's Regional EPA. He is also the President of AssoARPA, the national Association of the 21 regional EPAs in Italy.

Dr. Fabio Trincardi is a marine geologist, Director of the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Venice, Director of RITMARE (a large “flagship” program on marine and maritime research sponsored by MIUR), President of CORILA (Consortium for the coordination of research activities concerning the Venice lagoon system), and Professor at the University of Bologna where he teaches Sequence Stratigraphy.

His scientific interests focus on the evolution of continental margins, integrating geophysical, sedimentological and geo-chronological methods, and on the study of past climate regimes and their impacts on coastal systems and deep-water settings. He was the co-ordinator of EURODELTA and contractor in other twelve EU projects on continental margins and deep-sea ecosystems. He co-ordinated the Geological-Mapping Project of the Italian Seas financed by ISPRA.

He participated to more than 40 scientific cruises (Mediterranean, Pacific Ocean, Antarctica), and acts as advisor on several MSc and PhD thesis projects. For many years on the Editorial boards of Geology (Geological Society of America), Marine Geology (Elsevier), Geo-Marine Letters (Springer-Verlag).

President of the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), since October 2010.

Deputy Head of the Italian Civil Protection for the Technical and Operational Area, from 2008 to 2010.

Prof. Bernardinis has a vast professional, research and academic experience at national and international level in emergency prevention and management, environmental prevention, protection, monitoring and assessment, earth observation systems and related utilization, and in cooperation with developing countries.

He represents Italy in the GMES/Copernicus Committee, together with the Italian Ministry and Research and the Italian Space Agency. He is also the National Representative in the GMES/Copernicus User Forum established by the EU Regulation for the GMES Initial Operations (GIO), coordinates user inputs into the GMES/Copernicus services, as well as the national contributions to the in-situ component. He also represents Italy in EuroGeoSurveys.

He holds a degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Genoa University and a PhD in Fluid Mechanics from Imperial College.

Maria Cristina Pedicchio is the President of the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (since 2011) and Full Professor of Algebra at the University of Trieste, Italy.

She has been the President of the Cluster in Biomedicine (CBM; 2004-2012), a public-private institution that manages the Technology District in Molecular Biomedicine, and from 2002 to 2006 also President of the AREA Science Park of Trieste, the leading Science and Technology Park in Italy and a research institution of the Ministry of Education, University and Research. She is President of the Technical Scientific Committee – National Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE).

She had and continues to have several collaborations within the European Commission (Member of the Strategic Forum for International S&T Cooperation, member of ERAB, European Research Area Board). Her main sectors of interest are: research and innovation policy, international cooperation, training, international mobility, science diplomacy and public private partnerships.

As a scientist in Mathematics she developed her research activity in the field of Algebra, mainly working at international level with research teams in Canada and in Belgium.

Commander, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Dennis Schulze is the Chief Meteorology Officer of MeteoGroup, Europe’s largest private sector business. In this function he directs all forecasting, research and data management activities of the company. He joined the business in 1993 starting his career working as a forecaster and in meteorological development before moving into management. Dennis studied meteorology at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Petteri Taalas was elected Secretary-General of WMO by the World Meteorological Congress in 2015 for a four-year term.

He served as Director General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute 2007-2015 and again from 2002 to 2005; in the intermediate time he was the Director of WMO Development and Regional Activities Department (2005-2007). He served and continues to serve on the Councils of International institutions: the ECMWF Council 2002–2005 and 2007 to present, Chairman of EUMETSAT Council 2010–2014, EUMETNET Council 2003–2005; he is also the delegate of Finland to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 2007.

Petteri Taalas holds a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Helsinki (1993) and degrees in Management, Executive Education, Helsinki School of Economics (1998 and 2004). He is the author of some 50 peer-reviewed papers on satellite technology, global change, climate & atmospheric chemistry, and dozens of other publications & presentations.

Barbara Stenni is associate professor of geochemistry at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

She has more than 20 year-experience in the application of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in polar science and paleoclimatology, participating in more than 15 research programs including several successful deep drilling projects in Antarctica (EPICA, TALDICE), mapping of the Antarctic surface snow isotopic composition (ITASE) and leading paleoclimatology projects focusing on the Holocene (ESF-HOLOCLIP) and last 2000 years.

She is leader of the PAGES Antarctica2k working group. She is member of the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences SSC. She has been appointed as CNR’s Delegate to the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS/IUGG) for the period 2015/2018. She is recipient of the 2003 Research Prize “Felice Ippolito” (Italian Ministry of Research).

Filippo Giorgi obtained a Ph.D. at the School of Geophysical Sciences of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1986. From 1986 to 1998 he was a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. Since 1998 he is at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, where he is the Head of the Earth System Physics (ESP) section. Giorgi pioneered the field of regional climate modeling and is a leading international expert in regional climate research. He contributed to the last four assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and from 2002 to 2008 was one of the vice chairs of the IPCC Working Group I. Between 2009 and 2014 Giorgi was also a member of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP).