Research, teaching and other activities

Louvain-La-Neuve

 
Professor Thierry Fichefet
Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)
Faculty of Sciences (SC)
Earth and Life Institute (ELI)
Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM)
Place Louis Pasteur, 3, L4.03.08
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Tel: +32-10-473295 or +32-10-473297
Fax: +32-10-474722
E-mail: thierry.fichefet@uclouvain.be

Research areas

  • Large-scale sea-iceocean modelling (leader of the Louvain-la-Neuve sea-ice modelling LIM group).
  • Modelling climate variability (past and future) at the global scale, with focus on polar regions.
  • Modelling climatecryosphere interactions.

Research contracts

  1. Study of the atmosphere–ocean–biosphere system intended for climate studies (Credit to researchers, FNRS, budget : ~20,000 EUR, 1990-1991, in collaboration with G. Schayes and J.-P. van Ypersele).
  2. "Crédit superordinateur FNRS" (20 hours of CPU time on the ULB-VUB CRAY-XMP, 1990–1991, in collaboration with J.-P. van Ypersele).
  3. Variability of the glacial and interglacial climates and abrupt climatic changes (contract ENV4-CT95-0131, Climate and Environment Programme, European Commission, budget : ~171,000 EUR, 1996–1997).
  4. Modelling the climate and its evolution at the global scale – CLIMOD (Contract CG/DD/09A, First Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy, Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, Prime Minister’s Services, budget : ~377,000 EUR, 1996–2001). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 4 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~1,244,000 EUR).
  5. Influence of the air–sea–ice interactions in the polar regions on the global climate : A study with a new coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (contract ERBFMBICT972359, Programme for Training and Mobility of Researchers, European Commission, budget : ~178,000 EUR, 1998–2000).
  6. Climate variability : How unusual is the Holocene? (contract ENV4-CT97-0643, Climate and Environment Programme, European Commission, budget : ~192,000 EUR, 1998–2000).
  7. Modelling the climate and its evolution at the global and regional scales (Special Project SPBECL, European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, CPU time on the FUJITSU, 1998–2003, in collaboration with J.-P. van Ypersele).
  8. "Financement des Fonds Spéciaux de Recherche (FSR) de l’UCLouvain destiné à l’accueil d’un chercheur postdoctoral étranger à ASTR" (1999).
  9. Optimisation of a model of the coupled ocean–sea-ice system (Group Mission MERCATOR, CERFACS–CNES–CNRS/INSU–IFREMER–IRD–Météo-France–SHOM, budget : ~7000 EUR, 2000–2001).
  10. Modelling the evolution of climate and sea level over the third millennium – MILMO (contract EV/10/9A, Second Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy, Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, Prime Minister’s Services, budget : ~327,000 EUR, 2000–2005). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 3 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~972,000 EUR).
  11. Modelling the climate with LMDZ : Application to regional studies (International Scientific Cooperation Programme, French National Centre for Scientific Research and Belgian FNRS, budget : ~31,000 EUR, 2000–2003, in collaboration with H. Le Treut).
  12. Programme for integrated Earth system modelling – PRISM : An infrastructure project for climate research in Europe (contract EVR1-CT-2001-40012, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme, European Commission, budget : ~47,000 EUR, 2001–2004).
  13. Sea ice : Observations and high-resolution modelling (Group Mission MERCATOR, CERFACS–CNES–CNRS/INSU–IFREMER–IRD–Météo-France–SHOM, budget : ~12,000 EUR, 2001–2003).
  14. Contribution of the assimilation of satellite data to sea-ice modelling (FSR, budget : ~45,000 EUR, 2002–2004, in collaboration with E. Deleersnijder).
  15. Models and observations to test climate feedbacks – MOTIF (Fifth Framework Programme, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme, European Commission, budget : ~104,000 EUR, 2003–2005).
  16. Climate Change and Cryosphere – C3 (ACI-FNS French National Programme on Natural Risk and Climate Change, budget : ~24,000 EUR, 2003–2005, in collaboration with H. Goosse and J.-P. van Ypersele).
  17. Ensemble-based predictions of climate changes and their impacts – ENSEMBLES (contract 505539, Sixth Framework Programme, Global Change and Ecosystems Programme, European Commission, budget : ~75,000 EUR, 2004–2009).
  18. A second-generation model of the ocean system – SLIM (Concerted Research Actions, French Community of Belgium, budget : ~725,000 EUR, 2004–2009, in collaboration with E. Deleersnjider, V. Legat and J.-F. Remacle).
  19. Contributing as Lead Author to Chapter 8 of the IPCC Working Group 1 Fourth Assessment Report (contract IO/10/004, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~35,000 EUR, 2004–2007).
  20. Assessment of modelling uncertainties in long-term climate and sea level change projections – ASTER : Phase 1 (contract SD/CS/01A, Programme on Science for a Sustainable Development, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~200,000 EUR, 2006–2008). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 3 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~534,000 EUR).
  21. "Financement des FSR de l’UCLouvain destiné à l’accueil d’un chercheur postdoctoral étranger à ASTR" (2006, in collaboration with A. Berger et H. Goosse).
  22. Sea-ice biogeochemistry in polar oceans : Implications on fluxes of climatically significant gases and for climate changes of natural or anthropogenic origin – A contribution to the International Polar Year (Fund for Collective Fundamental Research, FNRS, budget : ~5000 EUR, 2007– 2009, in collaboration with A. Borges, L. Chou, C. Lancelot and J.-L. Tison).
  23. Network for ice sheet and climate evolution – NICE (contract MRTN-CT-2006-036127, Human Resources and Mobility Activity, Marie Curie Actions, Marie Curie Research Training Networks, European Commission, budget : ~282,000 EUR, 2007–2010).
  24. "Analyse comparée des forçages externes et des rétroactions internes au système climatique lors de trois périodes chaudes observées dans l’Arctique au cours des 10.000 dernières années" (Fund for Collective Fundamental Research, FNRS, budget : ~10,000 EUR, 2008, in collaboration with M. Crucifix and H. Goosse).
  25. Assessment of modelling uncertainties in long-term climate and sea level change projections – ASTER : Phase 2 (contract SD/CS/01B, Programme on Science for a Sustainable Development, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~263,000 EUR, 2008–2010). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 3 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~620,000 EUR).
  26. "Financement des FSR de l’UCLouvain destiné à l’accueil d’un chercheur postdoctoral étranger à ASTR" (2009, in collaboration with E. Lambin).
  27. Comprehensive modelling of the Earth system for better climate prediction and projection – COMBINE (grant agreement 226520, Seventh Framework Programme, Theme 6 : Environment, European Commission, budget : ~310,000 EUR, 2009–2013).
  28. Taking up the challenges of multi-scale marine modelling (convention 10/15-028, Concerted Research Actions, French Community of Belgium, budget : 485,000 EUR, 2010–2015, in collaboration with E. Deleersnjider, E. Hanert, V. Legat, J.-F. Remacle and S. Soares Frazao).
  29. Contributing as Lead Author to Chapter 12 of the IPCC Working Group 1 Fifth Assessment Report (contract SD/XX/822, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : 120,000 EUR, 2010–2013).
  30. Year-round ocean-sea-ice-atmosphere exchanges – YROSIAE (Fund for Collective Fundamental Research, FNRS, budget : ~10,500 EUR, 2011–2013, in collaboration with B. Delille, B. Heinesch and J.-L. Tison).
  31. Constraining long-term climate and sea-level projections using the Last Interglacial – iCLIPS (contract : SD/CS/06A, Programme on Science for a Sustainable Development, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~418,000 EUR, 2010–2015).
  32. Towards a new model of sea-ice rheology for climate simulation (PHC Tournesol 2011, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, 2011–2012, in collaboration with J. Weiss).
  33. Earth system model bias reduction and assessing abrupt climate change – EMBRACE (grant agreement 282672, Seventh Framework Programme, ENV.2011.1.1.1-1 Improvement of the representation of critical climate processes in climate and Earth system models, European Commission, budget : ~107,500 EUR, 2011–2016).
  34. Improving the representation of Antarctic sea ice in climate models thanks to a better understanding of the processes governing its mean state and variability (Research project, FNRS, budget : 318,000 EUR, 2014–2018, in collaboration with Hugues Goosse).
  35. Projections of climate and sea-level change for northern Belgium in the next 10,000 years (contract 2014-0086/00/00, Belgian Agency for Radioactive and Enriched Fissile Materials, budget : 75,000 EUR, 2014–2015).
  36. Process-based climate simulation : Advances in high resolution modelling and European climate risk assessment – PRIMAVERA (Horizon 2020 Programme, SC5-01-2014, European Commission, budget : 738,000 EUR, 2015–2019).
  37. Influence of small-scale processes on the dynamics of the coupled atmosphere-cryosphere-ocean system on daily to seasonal timescales in the region of Adélie Land, Antarctica (Research project, FNRS, budget : 180,500 EUR, 2016–2020). Within this project, I am coordinating a network of 2 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~350,000 EUR).
  38. Advanced prediction in polar regions and beyond : Modelling, observing system design and linkages associated with Arctic climate change – APPLICATE (contract 727862, Horizon 2020 Programme, BG-10-2016, European Commission, budget : 764,000 EUR, 2016–2020).
  39. Natural and anthropogenic climate changes in boreal environments : specificities and impacts on the human ecosystem (Bilateral Program for Collaborative Research Québec - Communauté française de Belgique, FRS-FNRS, budget : 122,000 EUR, 2017–2019, in collaboration with H. Goosse, S. Vanwambeke and J.-P. van Ypersele).
  40. Scientific quality assessment and reports for essential climate variables – SQUARE4ECVs (ECMWF Copernicus Procurement, C3S_511 : Quality Assessment of ECV Products, budget : 246,500 EUR, 2017–2021).
  41. Decadal predictability and variability of polar climate : the role of atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere multiscale interactions – PARAMOUR (EOS, The Excellence of Science, project 30454083, FRS-FNRS/FWO, budget : 783,500 EUR, 2018–2021, in collaboration with X. Fettweis, P. Huybrechts, H. Goosse, F. Pattyn and N. Van Lipzig).
  42. Evolution and optimisation of the NEMO-code used for the MFC-GLO in CMEMS : sea ice modelling integrated initiative (Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Services, Contract n°87-GLOBAL-CMEMS-NEMO-N, Mercator Ocean, budget : 87,500 EUR, 2019−2021).

Memberships

  • American Geophysical Union (member since 1990).
  • Americal Meteorological Society (member from 2008 to 2011).
  • European Geosciences Union (member since 1990).
  • International Glaciological Society (member since 2000).
  • International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (Belgian representative since 2006).
  • "Société Royale Belge d'Astronomie, de Météorologie et de Physique du Globe" (member since 1988).
  • "Comité National Belge de Géodésie et de Géophysique" (associated member from 1990 to 2003 ; full member since 2004).
  • "Comité National Belge pour les Recherches en Antarctique" (associated member from 1993 to 2002 ; full member since 2003).
  • "Collège des Alumni" of the "Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-arts de Belgique" (member since 2008).
  • Scientific Committee of the French National Programme on Climate Dynamics (member between 2001 and 2005).
  • Advisory Scientific Committee of the International Polar Foundation (member since 2003).
  • "Comité Scientifique du Pôle de Modélisation de l’Institut Pierre Simon Laplace" (member from 2005 to 2009).
  • "Commission d'Astrophysique, de Géophysique et de Dynamique du Climat" of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (member from 2005 to 2009).
  • "Commission des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement" of the "Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture" (Belgium) (member from 2005 to 2015).
  • Louis Agassiz Medal Committee of the European Geosciences Union (member since 2016).

Participation to working groups

  • Invited expert in the Working Group for Extracting Environmental Data from the Past of the IGBP (1988).
  • Member of the Belgian National Advice Research Council on Climate Change (1991–1993).
  • Member of the Euroclivar committee (1996–2000).
  • Participation in the elaboration of the Initial Implementation Plan of CLIVAR (1996–1998).
  • Belgian representative at the International CLIVAR Conference (1998).
  • Belgian representative in CLIVAR (since 1999).
  • Invited expert at the IPCC Workshop on Rapid Non-linear Climate Change (1998).
  • Invited expert in the Numerical Experimentation Group of ACSYS (1998–2003).
  • Invited expert at the Eight Session of the ACSYS Scientific Steering Group (1999).
  • Chairman of the working group in charge of updating the sea-ice model of the French climate modelling community GASTON (1999–2003).
  • Member of the ACSYS/CliC Scientific Steering Group (1999–2007).
  • Contributing author of the IPCC Working Group 1 Third Assessment Report.
  • Member of the PRISM Scientific Steering Group and System Specification Work Group (2001–2004).
  • Member of the European Network for Earth System Modelling (ENES) (since 2001).
  • Member of the SCOR/IMAGES Working Group on Past Ocean Circulation (2003–2007).
  • Member of the NEMO System Developers Committee (from 2004 to 2016).
  • Lead Author of the IPCC Working Group 1 Fourth Assessment Report (2004–2007).
  • Member of the COMBINE (Comprehensive modelling of the Earth system for better climate prediction and projection) Governing Board (2009–2013).
  • Member of the EMBRACE (Earth system model bias reduction and assessing abrupt climate change) Governing Board (from 2011 to 2016).
  • Lead Author and Contributing Author of the IPCC Working Group 1 Fifth Assessment Report (2010–2013).
  • Member of the PRIMAVERA (Process-based climate simulation : Advances in high resolution modelling and European climate risk assessment) Executive Board (since 2015).
  • Member of the APPLICATE (Advanced prediction in polar regions and beyond : Modelling, observing system design and linkages associated with Arctic climate change) Executive Board (since 2016).

Organization of international meetings and symposia

  • Member of the local organizing committee of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Climate and Geosciences : A Challenge for Science and Society in the 21st Century (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 22–27 May 1988).
  • Co-organizer of the International Workshop on Supercomputers in Climatology–Meteorology and Fluid Dynamics (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 21–23 May 1990).
  • Member of the scientific committee of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Paleoclimate Modelling (Centre d'Etudes Atomiques, Saclay, France, 27–31 May 1991).
  • Organizer of the 1998 Fall Meeting of the GASTON ("Glace, Atmosphère sur Terre et Océan Numériques") Group (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 15–16 December 1998).
  • Organizer of the Eight Session of the WCRP ACSYS Scientific Steering Group (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 15–19 November 1999).
  • Organizer of the Second EC Workshop on Holocene Ocean Instability (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 27–29 June 2000).
  • Member of the scientific committee of the CLIVAR Southern Ocean Workshop (Perth, Australia, 17–20 November 2000).
  • Organizer of the 2002 Spring Meeting of the GASTON Group (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 11–12 March 2002).
  • Co-organizer of the Workshop on Sea-Ice Extent and the Global Climate System (Météo-France, Toulouse, France, 15–17 April 2002).
  • Co-director of the conference The ACSYS Decade and Beyond, ACSYS Final Science Conference (Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 11–14 November 2003).
  • Co-organizer of the Final Workshop of the MILMO Network (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, 16–17 November 2004).
  • Co-convener of the session Ice Sheet–Climate Interactions of the European Geosciences Union General Assembly (Vienna, Austria, 2–7 April 2006, 16–20 April 2007, 13–18 April 2008, 2–7 May 2010, 3–8 Avril 2011, 22–27 April 2012).
  • Co-organizer of the Workshop on the WCRP/CliC Global Prediction of the Cryosphere (GPC) Project (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, U. K., 8–9 October 2007).
  • Member of the scientific committee of the NATO-Russian Advanced Research Workshop and 40th International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics on Influence of Climatic Change on Arctic and Subarctic Changing Conditions (Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium, 5–10 May 2008).
  • Member of the local organizing committee of the symposium Climate Change : From the Geologic Past to the Uncertain Future, a Tribute to André Berger (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 26-29 May 2008).
  • Co-convener of the session The Contribution of Greenland and Antarctica to Freshwater Input to the Ocean and Sea Level Changeof the IAMAS-IAPSO-IACS Joint General Assembly MOCA-09 (Montreal, Canada, 20–24 July 2009).
  • Member of the scientific committee of the Workshop on Unstructured Mesh Numerical Modelling of Coastal, Shelf and Ocean Flows (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 16–18 September 2009).
  • Member of the international scientific committee of the 42th International Liège Colloquim on Multiparametric Observation and Analysis of the Sea (Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium, 26–30 April 2010).
  • Member of the scientific committee of the WCRP Workshop on Polar Predictability on Seasonal to Multi-decadal Timescales (Bergen, Norway, 25–29 October 2010).
  • Co-organizer of the workshop Harmony on Ice (UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 13–14 September 2010).
  • Co-convener of the session Earth System Observations and Integration of the XXV IUGG General Assembly – Earth on the Edge : Science for a Sustainable Planet (Melbourne, Australia, 28 June – 7 July 2011).

Participation to international meetings, symposia and schools

I have given about 135 presentations/lectures in international meetings, symposia and schools, most of them at the invitation of the organizers.

Teaching

  • Holder or co-holder of the following courses at UCLouvain in 2019–2020 : LPHY1101 Physics 1, LPHYS1112 Mechanics 2 and thermodynamics, LPHYS1351 Personal project in physics, LPHY1365 Meteorology, LPHYS2163 Atmosphere and ocean : physics and dynamics, LPHYS2265 Sea ice–ocean–atmosphere interactions in polar regions.
  • Supervisor or co-supervisor of 25 Ph.D. theses (6 of them are under way) and of 67 Master/DEA theses since 1989.
  • Supervison of 16 postdoctoral researchers since 1989.
  • Member of 45 Ph.D. jurys (8 outside UCLouvain) since 1989.

Services to UCLouvain

  • Head of ASTR (2004–2009).
  • Head of TECLIM and ELIC (2010–2012).
  • Member of the Bureau (2010–2012) and Council (since 2010) of ELI.
  • President of the Council of ELI (2015–2018)
  • Secretary of the Department of Physics (1990–1993).
  • Coodinator of the first year of Bachelor studies in physics and mathematics (1997–2000).
  • Member of the Council of the Faculty of Sciences (since 1989).
  • Member of the Bureau of the Faculty of Sciences (2016–2019).
  • Member of the Council of the Department of Physics (1989–2009).
  • Member of the Bureau of the Department of Physics (2004–2009).
  • Member of the Bureau and Council of the School of Physics (since 2010).
  • Member of the Teaching Commission of the Faculty of Sciences (1997–2004).
  • Member of the Teaching Commission of the Department of Physics (2000–2009).
  • Member of the Commission of the Master degree in Geography (2004–2009).
  • Member of the Council of the Scool of Geography (since 2010).
  • Member of the Commission of the Doctoral School in Geosciences (2004–2006).
  • Member of the Computing Commission of the Faculty of Sciences (2002).
  • Member of the Council of the Academic Staff (2010–2013).
  • President of the Jury of the Master of Physics (2014–2016).
  • Member of the Restricted Jury of the Master of Geography (2015–2019).
  • Member of the Restricted Jury of the Master of Physics (2016–2019).
  • Président of the Shool of Physics (2016–2019).
  • Président of the Council and Bureau of the School of Physics (2016–2019).

Other activities

  • Member of several ad hoc commissions and working groups dealing with research policy, appointments/promotions and teaching (regularly over the last 25 years).
  • Coordinator of the research project "Modelling the climate and its evolution at the global and regional scales" funded by the Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (1996–2001).
  • Coordinator of the research project "Modelling the evolution of climate and sea level over the third millennium" funded by the Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (2000–2005).
  • Coordinator of the research project "Assessment of modelling uncertainties in long-term climate and sea level change projections" funded by the Belgian Science Policy (2006–2010).
  • Reviewer of projects submitted to the International Association for the Promotion of Cooperation with Scientists from the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union in 1994, 1996 and 1999.
  • Reviewer of scientific projects submitted to the French National Programme on Climate Dynamics,the French National Agency of Research, the AXA Research Fund, the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council, the European Research Council, the European Commission, the National Science Foundation and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
  • Topic Editor of Ocean Science (since 2009).
  • Referee for Annales Geophysicae, Atmosphere and Ocean, Climate Dynamics, Climate of the Past, Compte-rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal of Climate, Journal of Marine Systems, Journal of Physical Oceanography, Nature, Ocean Modelling, Paleoceanography, Polar Research, and Theoretical and Applied Climatology.
  • I am frequently invited to give popular conferences on climate and climate change at UCLouvain and in schools and societies.
  • I regularly give interviews to the printed press, radio and television on the issues of climate change.

Earth & Climate

Sciences and Technology

ELIC

Mercator
Place Louis Pasteur 3, mailbox L4.03.08,
1348, Louvain-la-Neuve