Professor Gregor C. Leckebusch PhD / Dipl.-Met.

Professor Gregor C. Leckebusch

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor of Meteorology and Climatology
UK Met Office Joint Chair

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 41 45518
Email
g.c.leckebusch@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Gregor Leckebusch is a leading expert in natural science research on meteorological and climatological extreme events and related impacts. His work is dedicated to natural variability and anthropogenic changes in extreme events like cyclones and storms and the relation to relevant risk assessments. Focus of his actual research is a better understanding of physical processes in the coupled climate system for the generation of extreme storms or precipitation and the assessment of predictability on different time scales. 

Biography

Professor Gregor Leckebusch studied Meteorology at the University of Cologne (Germany), where he completed his PhD on meteorological diagnostics of polar ice cores by means of paleoclimate model simulations. He subsequently worked as a Postdoc to regional extreme event modelling and impact assessment. He was Associate Professor from 2004 to 2010 (Habilitation 2009) at Freie University of Berlin (Institute for Meteorology) and Acting Chair of Dynamical Meteorology at the University of Leipzig (2010/2011) before he joined the University of Birmingham in 2011. He was Director of the NERC DTP CENTA (2019-2022). Since 2019, he is Professor of Meteorology and Climatology and was appointed UK Met Office Joint Chair at the University of Birmingham in October 2022.

Teaching

Gregor’s Teaching activities are strongly linked to his research activities and cover modules in different programmes, from modules in Physical Geography (e.g., Techniques in Physical Geography - Energy Balance Model or the year-3 module on Weather, Climate and Society) at undergrad level (BSc) to modules at  Master level.  In Birmingham (MSc in Applied Meteorology and Climatology) he is leading 3 modules, including topics like “Meteorological Applications and Services” and “Physical Climatology”. His teaching experience includes modules on e.g., dynamical and synoptic meteorology, polar meteorology, general meteorology and climatology, weather prediction and impact assessment, and practical meteorological observation courses at different levels of complexity.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Leckebusch offers a wide range of postgraduate supervision, spanning from pure meteorological topics (eg, studies to extreme wind storms) to impact research (eg, trends of forest fire under future climate conditions) and welcomes applications from potential doctoral researchers in his areas of interest.

Research

Professor Gregor Leckebusch played a leading role (i.a. PI, Co-I) in more than 30 national and international research and training grants from public and private sources with a total awarded funding volume of over £13m . He has published about 70 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and his work is cited over 6000 times (Google Scholar/ISI > 3000) with an h-index of 34/27. He is Convener of the EGU session "Mid-latitude Cyclones and Storms: Diagnostics of Observed and Future Trends, and related Impacts", which he initialised, since 2009. He has sustained industry collaborations with world-leading re-insurance and CAT modelling companies, which funded several of his projects (e.g., SwissRe, CoreLogic-EQECAT, RPI2.0). Recent research grants include industry sponsored or collaborative grants to highly relevant topics like e.g., to parametric insurance thresholds of Typhoons (NERC, collaboration with SwissRe Beijing), to questions of interannual variability of extreme hazards in the Atlantic (European storms and Hurricanes; CoreLogic) and the Northwest Pacific Ocean/China (UK Met Office & Newton Fund: PRE-CAX), to questions of potential global connectivity between synoptic-scale hazards (SwissRe), and to the risk of post-tropical cyclones in the North-Atlantic (NERC Large Grant: HURACAN led by the University of Reading). Prof. Leckebusch is member of the editorial board of the interdisciplinary journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS; https://www.natural-hazards-and-earth-system-sciences.net/). 

Other activities


  • Member of the German Meteorological Society (DMG)
  • Member of the European Geosciences Union (EGU)
  • Member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • Member of the CLM user community
    (CLM = Climate version of the Lokal-Modell of the German Weather Service (DWD))
  • Assisting Chairman of the user group committee of the German High Performance Computing Centre for Climate- and Earth System Research (DKRZ) (2002 – 2004)
  • Geo.X - Coordinator for Freie Universität Berlin, Faculty of Geosciences (www.geo-x.net); Geo-Research cluster in the area Berlin-Brandenburg (2009-2010)
  • Member of the IMILAST- Coordination group (IMILAST-Project: Intercomparison of mid latitude storm diagnostics; http://www.proclim.ch/IMILAST/)
  • External expert consulter at University of Arba Minch (Ethiopia) to establish a new study programme (BSc, MSc) in the field of Meteorology and Hydrology in accordance with the European Bologna process at the Water Technology Institute, University of Arba Minch, Ethiopia. Collaboration with DAAD and GTZ (27.08.2008 – 25.09.2008)
  • Radiosonde campaign at Parakou (Benin, West-Africa) in the framework of the research initiative IMPETUS (Integrative Management Project for efficient and sustainable Use of freshwater in West-Africa) (12.07.2002 – 20.08.2002) 

Reviews

  • Peer reviews for scientific journals, e.g. J. Climate, Meteorol. Z., Climate Dynamics, Climatic Change, Climate Research, TellusA, NHESS, etc.
  • Referee for grant applications e.g. NERC (UK), BSF (USA), etc.
  • Referee for the IPCC Working Group II, Fourth Assessment Report Cross-chapter Case Study: The European 2003 heat wave.

Organisation of scientific sessions at international conferences and symposia

  • Invitation to the British Academy organised COP26 roundtable on Cities and Climate Finance
  • Shenzhen Parametric Insurance workshop 2019: Leckebusch, GC, 2019: The Elephant in the Room: Typhoon’s Real Risk and DRR by Financial Instruments.
  • Lead organiser of the 8th European Windstorm Workshop 2019; hosted at the University of Birmingham: 28-30. Oct 2019; Edgbaston Conference Centre
  • Organisation of the first international workshop to parametric insurance in East Asia under consideration of local stakeholders and insurance companies. 12/13. Oct. 2019, Shenzhen, PR China. GC Leckebusch main organiser; participants from all sectors (academia, insurance, local government).
  • Convener of session "Mid-latitude Cyclones and Storms: Diagnostics of Observed and Future Trends, and related Impacts", "European Geosciences Union" General Assembly, Vienna, 2009; 2010, 2011, 2012.
  • Co-Convener of session "Urban Climate",11th EMS Annual Meeting; 10th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology (ECAM), 12 – 16 September 2011, Berlin, Germany.
  • Member of the Programme and Science Committee (PSC) of the 11th EMS Annual Meeting / 10th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology (ECAM), 12 – 16 September 2011, Berlin, Germany. 
  • Convener of the EGU session "Mid-latitude Cyclones and Storms: Diagnostics of Observed and Future Trends, and related Impacts"; since 2009 – ongoing
  • "Employment Options for Professionals in Meteorology and Hydrology – Implications for Curriculum Development." Addis Ababa, 22.09.2008.
  • "Zugang zu meteorologischen Daten", internationale Fortbildungsveranstaltung und Podiumsdiskussion für den Zweigverein Rheinland der Deutschen Meteorologischen Gesellschaft. Köln, 1996.

Awards

UK Met Office Joint Chair at the University of Birmingham since October 2022

Marie-Curie Fellow Award 2012-2016: Certificate of Award: Gregor C. Leckebusch was awarded in 2012 a MARIE CURIE Fellowship as part of the EU-funded project Extreme Events Variability over Europe (EVE).

The Gordon Manley Weather Prize of the Royal Meterological Society

The Prize for 2008 is awarded to Professor Andreas Fink and meteorology colleagues at the Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, Cologne, Germany. London, 18 June 2008

 “Andreas Fink and a variety of colleagues have CO-authored a wide range of case studies of extreme weather events over Europe that have been published in Weather since the mid 1990s. The subjects have ranged from the mid-latitude storms of January 1999 to the central European floods of 2002, the heat and drought of summer 2003 and Snow accumulation in winter 2005. Each of the resulting articles has been distinguished by a careful balance between comprehensive meteorological analysis of the causes and impacts of the weather events and a lucid and accessible written style. As such, these articles embody many of the aims of Weather.”

Given under the seal of the society, 18 June 2008

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Ng, K, Leckebusch, G & Hodges, K 2022, 'A causality-guided statistical approach for modeling extreme Mei-yu rainfall based on known large-scale modes—a pilot study', Advances in Atmospheric Science, vol. 39, no. 11, pp. 1925-1940. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-022-1348-3

Mamadjanova, G & Leckebusch, GC 2022, 'Assessment of mudflow risk in Uzbekistan using CMIP5 models', Weather and Climate Extremes, vol. 35, 100403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2021.100403

Degenhardt, L, Leckebusch, GC & Scaife, AA 2022, 'Large-scale circulation patterns and their influence on European winter windstorm predictions', Climate Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06455-2

Ng, KS & Leckebusch, GC 2021, 'A new view on the risk of typhoon occurrence in the western North Pacific', Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 663-682. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-663-2021

Ng, K, Leckebusch, G, Ye, Q, Ying, W & Zhao, H 2021, 'On the use of ensemble predictions for parametric typhoon insurance', Climate, vol. 9, no. 12, 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9120174

Befort, D, Kruschke, T & Leckebusch, G 2020, 'Objective Identification of Potentially Damaging Tropical Cyclone over the Western North Pacific', Environmental Research Communications, vol. 2, no. 031005. <https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ab7b35>

Befort, DJ, Kruschke, T & Leckebusch, GC 2020, 'Objective identification of potentially damaging tropical cyclones over the Western North Pacific', Environmental Research Communications, vol. 2, no. 3, 031005. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ab7b35

Angus, M & Leckebusch, GC 2020, 'On the Dependency of Atlantic Hurricane and European Windstorm Hazards', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 47, no. 23, e2020GL090446. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090446

Hillier, JK, Saville, GR, Smith, MJ, Scott, AJ, Raven, EK, Gascoigne, J, Slater, LJ, Quinn, N, Tsanakas, A, Souch, C, Leckebusch, GC, MacDonald, N, Milner, AM, Loxton, J, Wilebore, R, Collins, A, MacKechnie, C, Tweddle, J, Moller, S, Dove, M, Langford, H & Craig, J 2019, 'Demystifying academics to enhance university-business collaborations in environmental science', Geoscience Communication, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-1-2019

Walz, M & Leckebusch, G 2019, 'Loss potentials based on an ensemble forecast: how likely are winter windstorm losses similar to 1990?', Atmospheric Science Letters, vol. 20, no. 4, e891. https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.891

Commissioned report

Acton, J, Anderson, P, Andres, L, Angus, M, Amor, P, Arrowsmith, J (ed.), Asmelash, H, Bartington, S (ed.), Bengtsson, F, Bhullar, L, Bloss, W, Bonet, B, Börner, S, O Bonsu, N, Bryson, JR, Burns, V, Burrows, A, Calvert, C, Cassidy, N, Cavoski, A, Chadyiwa, M, Chapman, H, Chapman, L, Cockram, M, Degendardt, L, Dickinson, D, Ding, Y, Dobrzynski, D, Dolo, M, Dora, J, Ercolani, M, Ersoy, A, Farag, H, Ferranti, E, Fisher, R, Freer, M, Goldmann, N, Goode, CE, Greenham, S, Gulati, S, Hadfield-Hill, S, Harper, G, Hegerl, G, Hillmansen, S, Holmes, J, Huang, JJ, Huser, C, Jackson, R, Jaroszweski, D, Jefferson, I, Johnson, J, Kaewunruen, S, Kelly-Akinnuoye, F, Kettles, G, Kraftl, P, Krause, S, Leckebusch, GC, Lee, R, Lockwood, B (ed.), Lohse, J, Luna Diez, E, Lynch, I (ed.), MacKenzie, R, Maddison, D, Makepeace, J, Mann, V, Marino, R, Mavronicola, N, McDonald, M, McGowan, K (ed.), Metje, N, Ng, K, Nicol, J, O'Sullivan, C, Phalkey, N, Prestwood, E, Pyatt, N, Quinn, A, Radcliffe, J (ed.), Ravi, M, Reardon, L, Reeder, T, O’Regan, P, Remedios, L, Roberts, J, Rogers, C, Rungskunroch, P, van Schaik, W, Swan, J (ed.), Thomson, I, Toft, H (ed.), Tong, J, Botello Villagrana, F, Walton, A, Wason, C (ed.), Weir, C, Wood, R & Zhong, J 2021, Addressing the climate challenge. University of Birmingham. https://doi.org/10.25500/epapers.bham.00003451

Other contribution

Leckebusch, GC & Ng, KS 2020, Assessing Typhoon Risk Using Multi-model Ensemble Forecasts for Disaster Risk Reduction.. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8531

Degenhardt, L, Leckebusch, G & Scaife, A 2020, Assessing reasons for skilful predictions of winter windstorms over the Atlantic/European region.. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10991

Angus, M & Leckebusch, G 2020, How well do seasonal forecasts reproduce European winter storm clustering and its relationship to large-scale climate drivers?.. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11149

Widmann, M, Angus, M, Orr, A & Leckebusch, G 2020, Postprocessing heavy precipitation forecasts for India with Quantile Mapping.. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19476

View all publications in research portal