Thomas Gasser
Senior Research Scholar
Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group
Energy, Climate, and Environment Program
Senior Research Scholar
Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group
Advancing Systems Analysis Program
Biography
Thomas Gasser is a senior research scholar jointly associated with the Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program and the Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group of the Energy, Climate, and Environment Program. He coordinates the “Earth system modeling” research theme.Gasser’s core expertise is in reduced-complexity modeling of the physical Earth system. His work focuses on improving and expanding reduced-complexity models and emulation techniques, on using these models to investigate policy-relevant aspects of climate change, and on linking physics-based emulators with the socioeconomic modeling tools available at IIASA. He is the main developer of the compact Earth system model OSCAR and a regular contributor to the Global Carbon Budget. He has also contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C and to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. He and his team are involved in a number of large-scale European projects, including Nunataryuk, CONSTRAIN, ESM2025: Earth System Models for the Future, and RESCUE (upcoming), as well as in more targeted ones such as the ERM: Medium Complexity Earth System Risk Management project.
Gasser holds a master-level diploma in multidisciplinary science from École Polytechnique, another in environmental engineering from Ponts ParisTech, and a PhD in climate sciences from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, all in France. Prior to working with IIASA, he conducted his doctoral research at the International Center for Development and Environment (CIRED) and his post-doctoral research at the IPSL Sciences Laboratory of Climate and the Environment (LSCE) in France, both on the dual topic of modeling couplings and feedbacks in the Earth system and quantifying the contribution of nations to human-induced climate change.
Google Scholar. ORCID. GitHub.
Last update: 11 FEB 2022
Publications
Rogelj, J. , Shindell, D., Jiang, K., Fifita, S., Forster, P., Ginzburg, V., Handa, C., Kheshgi, H., Kobayashi, S., Kriegler, E., Mundaca, L., Seferian, R., Vilarino, M.V., Calvin, K., Edelenbosch, O., Emmerling, J., Fuss, S., Gasser, T. , Gillet, N., He, C., Hertwich, E., Höglund-Isaksson, L. , Huppmann, D. , Luderer, G., Markandya, A., McCollum, D., Millar, R., Meinshausen, M., Popp, A., Pereira, J., Purohit, P. , Riahi, K. , Ribes, A., Saunders, H., Schadel, C., Smith, C., Smith, P., Trutnevyte, E., Xiu, Y., Zickfeld, K., & Zhou, W. (2018). Chapter 2: Mitigation pathways compatible with 1.5°C in the context of sustainable development. In: Global Warming of 1.5 °C an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Lade, S.J., Donges, J.F., Fetzer, I., Anderies, J.M., Beer, C., Cornell, S.E., Gasser, T. , Norberg, J., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., & Steffen, W. (2018). Analytically tractable climate-carbon cycle feedbacks under 21st century anthropogenic forcing. Earth System Dynamics 9 507-523. 10.5194/esd-2017-78.
Quilcaille, Y, Gasser, T. , Ciais, P, Lecocq, F, Janssens-Maenhout, G, & Mohr, S (2018). Uncertainty in projected climate change arising from uncertain fossil-fuel emission factors. Environmental Research Letters 13 (4) e044017. 10.1088/1748-9326/aab304.
Le Quéré, C., Andrew, R. M., Friedlingstein, P., Sitch, S., Pongratz, J., Manning, A. C., Korsbakken, J. I., Peters, G. P., Canadell, J. G., Jackson, R. B., Boden, T. A., Tans, P. P., Andrews, O. D., Arora, V. K., Bakker, D. C. E., Barbero, L., Becker, M., Betts, R. A., Bopp, L., Chevallier, F., Chini, L. P., Ciais, P., Cosca, C. E., Cross, J., Currie, K., Gasser, T. , Harris, I., Hauck, J., Haverd, V., Houghton, R. A., Hunt, C. W., Hurtt, G., Ilyina, T., Jain, A. K., Kato, E., Kautz, M., Keeling, R. F., Klein Goldewijk, K., Körtzinger, A., Landschützer, P., Lefèvre, N., Lenton, A., Lienert, S., Lima, I., Lombardozzi, D., Metzl, N., Millero, F., Monteiro, P. M. S., Munro, D. R., Nabel, J. E. M. S., Nakaoka, S.-I., Nojiri, Y., Padin, X. A., Peregon, A., Pfeil, B., Pierrot, D., Poulter, B., Rehder, G., Reimer, J., Rödenbeck, C., Schwinger, J., Séférian, R., Skjelvan, I., Stocker, B. D., Tian, H., Tilbrook, B., Tubiello, F. N., van der Laan-Luijkx, I. T., van der Werf, G. R., van Heuven, S., Viovy, N., Vuichard, N., Walker, A. P., Watson, A. J., Wiltshire, A. J., Zaehle, S., & Zhu, D. (2018). Global Carbon Budget 2017. Earth System Science Data Discussions 10 (1) 405-448. 10.5194/essd-10-405-2018.
Li, W., Ciais, P., Yue, C., Gasser, T. , Peng, S., & Bastos, A. (2018). Gross changes in forest area shape the future carbon balance of tropical forests. Biogeosciences 15 91-103. 10.5194/bg-2017-291.