Pronouns: she/her
Lamont Research Professor, Geochemistry, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia Climate School
Associate Director, Geochemistry, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)
Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES),
Comer 139 61 Route 9W Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Palisades, NY 10964
BIOGRAPHY:
Gisela Winckler is a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory where she also serves as the Associate Director of the Geochemistry Division. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Heidelberg in 1998. She was a researcher at the International Atomic Energy Agency before joining Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 2001.
Winckler has been a leader in paleoceanography and the interplay of climate change, carbon cycle and aerosols since 2003. As an environmental physicist and isotope geochemist she uses elemental and isotopic analyses (noble gases, U-Th series, cosmogenic and radiogenic isotopes) to unravel processes of climate and environmental change in the oceans and on continents, on timescales ranging from decades to tens of millions of years. Her research uses climate archives such as deep-sea sediments, lake sediments and polar ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland. Her reconstructions of past climates are key to understanding the climate system’s sensitivity to natural variability and anthropogenic perturbations.
Winckler has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including in Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience, Science Advances and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Winckler is passionate about mentoring graduate students and postdocs, and a recent recipient of the LDEO Excellence in Mentoring Award. She teaches in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She has served as the ‘Climate Scientist in Residence’ at Columbia’s Journalism School where she has been involved in developing innovative course material at the interface of journalism, climate science and art. She is deeply engaged in the JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) space. She served as the co-chair of the Lamont Diversity Equity and Inclusion Task Force, and currently co-teaches a seminar on Climate Change, Race and Environmental Justice. More details at wings.ldeo.columbia.edu.
CONTACT
winckler@ldeo.columbia.edu
845-365-8756
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NETWORK AFFILIATION(S)
EXPERTISE
FIELDS OF INTEREST
Climate Change and Climate Science The role of the ocean in the climate system and the carbon cycle, with a particular focus on the Southern Ocean and Pacific. Paleoclimate and Paleoceanography A better understanding of past climates is key to quantifying the climate system’s sensitivity and response to natural variability and anthropogenic perturbations. Winckler's current research focuses on the Pliocene, Quaternary ice age cycles, abrupt climate and environmental changes, as well as climatic extremes in the deep Earth history. She uses elemental and isotopic analyses to unravel processes of climate and environmental change in the oceans and on continents, on timescales ranging from decades to tens of millions of years. Her group (WINGS - Winckler Isotope and Noble Gas Laboratory) studies a variety of climate and environmental archives such as deep-sea sediments, lake sediments and polar ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland. Winckler applies a wide spectrum of analytical techniques, including sector-field mass spectrometry and ICP-MS to perform high-precision measurements of a variety of isotope tracers, including noble gases, stable isotopes, radiogenic and cosmogenic isotopes.
EDUCATION
HONORS & AWARDS