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Nathalie Dubois becomes titular professor at the ETH Zurich

May 19, 2022 | Bärbel Zierl

The ETH Board has appointed Nathalie Dubois as adjunct professor as of 1 June 2022. The palaeolimnologist has headed the Eawag sedimentology research group in the Surface Waters Department since 2013 and has been teaching at the ETH Zurich since 2014.

Nathalie Dubois’ research focuses on lake sediments in Switzerland and around the world. With her group, she analyses layer by layer the sediments deposited in lakes and uses them to reconstruct past environmental conditions. To this end, she combines a broad spectrum of research areas: sedimentology, palaeolimnology, palaeoclimatology, inorganic and organic geochemistry. She is also investigating what traces humans have left in the sediments. In this way, she can draw conclusions about how humankind has influenced and changed the environment and climate over the last 10,000 years. This is an important prerequisite to better assess what environmental changes we can expect in the future.

Nathalie Dubois studied Earth Sciences at the University of Geneva, did her PhD on palaeoceanography at Dalhousie University in Canada, and then carried out postdoctoral research at The University of Manchester in England and at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA. In 2013, she joined Eawag as a group leader in Sedimentology and shortly afterwards began giving lectures with practical courses at the ETH Zurich. She received an assistant professorship from the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2016 to 2021. During this time, she already supervised several master’s and doctoral theses. She can now continue this role with her appointment as adjunct professor.

Cover picture: Prof. Nathalie Dubois (Photo: Peter Penicka)