Palaeontology’s Contribution To Understanding Our Climate Crisis

Thursday, 24 April 2025

18:00 - 19:00 (Doors open 17:30)

This event is free but booking is required. Book your tickets here.

About the event

The current climate change and habitat destruction is leading to what many call the 6th Mass extinction. Many paleo researchers, exploring past climate and biotic responses to these changes, link their work directly to the current climate crisis driven by the clear need to reverse the dangerous and widespread disruption in nature. Drawing on her 13 years' experience in the IPCC Working Group II, Professor Schmidt will focus on the urgent questions which need addressing, and the potential the paleo records have in this context to generate solutions.

About the speakers

Daniela Schmidt

Professor Daniela Schmidt is a Professor in Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses using new and novel techniques to generate a holistic understanding of the threats of climate change on marine ecosystems. Her early work assessed the ecology of benthic foraminifers at the AWI Bremerhaven with the aim to improve our ability to assess past changes in ocean ecosystems. Professor Schmidt has won a series of independent fellowships including from the Swiss Science foundation (SNF), the German Science foundation (DFG), NERC and the Royal Society. She received a Wolfson Merit Award from the Royal Society in 2015. Professor Schmidt has contributed to several climate reports and was a lead author of the 5th IPCC report WGII, an Expert Group Member of EU SAPEA on the topic "Food from the Oceans" and led the IPCC WGII chapter on Europe for the 6th IPCC assessment.