Spotlight on a Young Researcher: Francine Schevenhoven from the University of Bergen

Meet Francine, a researcher at the University of Bergen (UiB). Within I4C, she improves climate forecasts through ‘supermodelling’, a method combining several climate models into a unified supermodel.

What do you do on Impetus4Change? Is it the first project you’ve worked on?

I have been working on supermodelling throughout my research career to further improve climate predictions. The idea is that the models in a supermodel frequently talk to each other, to help each other to mitigate model biases, since every model has its strengths and weaknesses. I am currently combining atmosphere models, both physical models and AI forecast models, a field that is exploding.

What is the most interesting thing you learned so far working on Impetus4Change?

That is difficult to choose, I have seen so much interesting work during the meetings. But if I have to choose, I think I would say how to shape the collaboration between experts from such a diverse range of fields, that has been very inspiring.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are you working on?

Actually, the same as now! In 5 years, I hope I can still perform research on improving climate predictions, and next to my research I hope to be still involved in many outreach activities. I think it is very important to explain your work to people outside academia and hear about their perspectives. In the past years, we have been developing learning games to educate about climate modelling and climate science, which has been really fun.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

I wanted to become an architect because it seemed the perfect combination of creativity and math and physics. But then I discovered that most of the study consisted of drawing, and I would miss math and physics.

Who is your science idol? Someone you wish you could have a conversation with (from the past or contemporary).

I have just been reading The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut, about John von Neumann. I would love to have a chat with him and try to get a glimpse of how his brilliant mind worked. As a contemporary person, I would choose Robbert Dijkgraaf, a Dutch theoretical physicist, who has been the director of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton and was the Minister of Education in the Netherlands for the past 4 years. I would be very interested in hearing about his experiences in politics since there are so few politicians with a background in natural science or mathematics.

Which Impetus4Change research outcome/WP/expert (other than your own) are you most excited to learn about or collaborate with?

I would like to get involved in the Adaptalab, I think that is an exciting concept to bring together climate researchers and stakeholders in an engaging way. So I hope to be there in Barcelona in March.

If Impetus4Change held a party, which song would you request from the DJ?

I think every time I would give a different answer to this question, but at the moment it would be Cheap Thrills from Sia, since we have been using it during my latin dance class, and it is completely stuck in my head!