We are excited to announce a special podcast series in collaboration with the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco titled Space, Science and Switzerland. Featuring expert interviews, the podcast explores Switzerland’s involvement in space research, challenges we face on Earth such as climate change, NASA’s recent Mission to Mars, and the role of international law and the UN in space. Subscribe to nextcasts via SoundCloud or iTunes to listen first.
The first episode features an interview with Maria Santos, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of Zurich (UZH), who discusses how space data and research is used to better understand challenges we face on Earth. Maria Santos has worked in California with both UC Berkeley and Stanford, and in Switzerland with UZH, and has collaborated with agencies such as NASA and ESA.
This episode is produced and hosted by Perrine Huber.
Maria J. Santos
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Bio
Maria J. Santos
Professor in Earth System Sciences at the University of ZurichMaria J. Santos is a Professor in Earth System Sciences at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, co-funded by the Department of Geography and the University Research Priority Program in Global Change and Biodiversity. Prior, Maria was an Assistant Professor at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and also at UC Berkeley, after completing her PhD at UCDavis. Her research asks questions around the co-evolution of social-ecological systems, a fundamental step to address key questions related to Earth System sustainability. Maria’s research focuses on understanding the impacts of anthropogenic change on species and ecosystem distributions and how to maintain livelihoods in a sustainable manner.
Such approach is by necessity interdisciplinary given the multi-sectorial and complex nature of the problem, and it applies multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches to observe, describe, assess drivers, and model the interactions and feedbacks between Earth System spheres and the human system.
