04.2021-12.2023 Head of ZiF Cooperation Group (VCH: Volcanos, Climate and History) at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany

06.2020 to present Professor of Physical Geography, Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

11.2019 to present Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) 

02.2018 to present Associate Editor of Dendrochronologia

02.2017 to present Member of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK

01.2017 to present Professor of Environmental Systems Analysis, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK

01.2017 to present Senior Scientist at Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

10.2016 to 05.2020 Faculty Member at the Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic 

08.2016 The Electors to the Professorship of Environmental Systems Analysis have elected PD Dr Ulf Büntgen, MA, University of Bonn, PhD, University of Bern, Head of Dendroecology, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, into the said Professorship with effect from 1 January 2017

01.2014-12.2016 Head of PAGES (Past Global Changes) working group: Euro-Med2k “Climate of Europe and the Mediterranean of the last 2 millennia”

11.2013 to present ITRDB board member

01.2013-12.2016 Head of Dendroecology Group at Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

09.2012 to present Associated Senior Scientist at CzechGlobe Global Change Research Institute CAS, Brno, Czech Republic

05.2012 Call for S-Professorship in Palaeoclimatology at the Humboldt-University Berlin together with Group Leadership at GFZ Potsdam (declined)  

12.2011 W2-Professorship in Climatology at Department of Geography, University of Bayreuth, Germany (shortlisted)

10.2011 Habilitation (paleoclimatology/paleoecology) at University of Bern: Tree rings and climate – beyond temperature reconstructions

10-12.2010 Guest Professor at University of Madrid, Spain, Department of Astrophysics, collaboration with JF Gonzalez-Rouco

03-04.2009 Associated Research Fellow at Institute of Geography, Masaryk University of Brno, Czech Republic

06.2007-12.2016 Associated Research Fellow of Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland

11.2006-12.2016 Scientist at Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

11.2006 PhD thesis (Dr phil. nat.), Department of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland: Long-term European climate reconstructions from high-elevation tree-rings. Grade: summa cum laude, supervisors: Wanner H, Esper J, Nicolussi K

09.2004-10.2006 PhD student, University of Bern, Switzerland

09.2003-08.2004 Scientific Research Assistant, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

08.2003 Master thesis, Department of Geography, University Bonn, Germany: Dendroklimatologische Analysen einer 1000-jährigen Lärchenchronologie aus rezenten und verbauten Hölzern für das Lötschental, Schweiz. Grade: 1.0, supervisors: Winiger M, Esper J, Neuwirth B

04.1999-08.2003 Studies of Geography, Geology and Cartography, University Bonn, Germany 

09.1998-04.1999 Stay abroad: Oceanside, California, USA 

08.1997-09.1998 Social service: ‘GL-GL’ in Bonn, Germany

06.1997 Allgemeine Hochschulreife: Gymnasium am Ölberg, Königswinter, Germany

1992-1998 Semi-professional Mountain Biker (Team Schauff) with several participations at German, European (France and Italy) and World Championships (France and USA)

aDND: Evaluating the potential of the subfossil “Binz” pines for ancient DNA analyses (WSL internal call 2014; CHF 53’000) – Co-PI

AIVEC: Linking Alpine Ibex Vitality to European Climate Variability (WSL internal call 2013; CHF 79’000) – PI (together with Kurt Bollmann, Josef Senn, Simon Egli and Achilleas Psomas)

ALP-IMP: Multi-centennial climate variability in the Alps based on instrumental data, model simulations, and proxy data (European Commission, Grant # EVK2-CT-2002-00148) – involved

ANYUI: Volcanoes, Climate and the Peopling of the Americas (Crowdfunding 2018-19; CHF 80’000) – PI

BINZ I: Improving Late Glacial European tree-ring chronologies for accurate climate archive dating - Consolidation and extension of the Swiss-German pine chronology back to 14 000 BP (Swiss National Science Foundation + DFG, Grant # 20021L_157187 / 1; CHF 477’277 + Euro 300’000) – Co-PI (together with Wacker L)

BINZ II: One-year extension of “Improving Late Glacial European tree-ring chronologies for accurate climate archive dating - Consolidation and extension of the Swiss-German pine chronology back to 14 000 BP” (Swiss National Science Foundation # 20021L_157187 / 2; CHF 126’092) – Co-PI (together with Wacker L)

COSMIC: Extraterrestrial evaluation of global-scale tree-ring dating in the first millennium CE (WSL internal call 2014; CHF 53’777) – PI

DAAD: Siberian Driftwood (DAAD personal grant; Euro 1’000) – PI

DITREC: Disentangling Truffle Ecology (WSL internal call 2011; CHF 46’000) – PI (together with Egli S)

Euro-FC: Linking European Fungal Ecology with Climate Variability (Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant # 205321_169613; CHF 159’000; 2016-2018) – PI 

EUROTRANS: European multi-centennial climatic variability and extremes along a maritime-continental tree-ring transect (Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant # 200021-105663) – co-inventor and main employee

EVA MAYR-STIHL STIFTUNG: Grönländisches Treibholz als Umweltarchiv, 2010 – Rekonstruktion nacheiszeitlicher Klimaschwankung, Ozeanströmung und Landhebung (Eva Mayr-Stihl-Stiftung; Euro 10’000) – PI

EVA MAYR-STIHL STIFTUNG: Arctic driftwood Project 2011, extension of the former Greenland project (Eva Mayr-Stihl-Stiftung; Euro 18’000) – PI

EVA MAYR-STIHL STIFTUNG: Arctic driftwood Project 2012, extension of the activities from 2010 and 2011 (Eva Mayr-Stihl-Stiftung; Euro 20’000) – PI

EVA MAYR-STIHL STIFTUNG: Arctic driftwood Project 2013, extension of the activities from 2010-2012 (Eva Mayr-Stihl-Stiftung; Euro 54’000) – PI

EXTRACT: Extended thousand-year reconstructions of Alpine climate from tree-rings (Swiss National Science Foundation, NCCR-Climate) – involved 

GenTree: Optimising the management and sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe (European Commission – Horizon 2020; Euro 520’000) – Co-PI 2016

IBEX: Unraveling the effects of hunting and climate on the Swiss Alpine ibex population (Ernst Göhner Stiftung; CHF 50’000) – PI (together with Kurt Bollmann) 2016

INTERDROUGHT: Building up a multidisciplinary scientific team focused on drought; 35 months from August 2012 to June 2016 (European Commission through Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports; Euro 1’280’000) – Co-PI 

LÖTSCHENTAL-TRANSECT: (Swiss National Science Foundation) – co-inventor

LSD: Annual Dating of the Laacher See Eruption – LSD (WSL internal call 2018; CHF 56’000) – PI (together with Paolo Cherubini) 

MADRID: Tree rings, model simulations and climate variations on the Iberian Peninsula (UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE; Euro 7’2000) – PI

MEDCLIVAR: 500 years of tree ring-based drought reconstructions for the Central Iberian Peninsula – main inventor

MILLENNIA: Millennia-long Northern Hemisphere climate reconstructions from tree rings (Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant # 2100-066628) – involved

MILLENNIUM: (European Commission, Grant # 017008-2; Euro 480’000) – co-inventor and main employee

PAGES: Compilation and evaluation of marine and terrestrial archives for Europe and the last 2k years (EuroMed2k), September 14-17, 2014 Soria, Spain (US$ 10’000) – PI

PAGES: Consolidation, finalization and publication of the EuroMed2k database (EuroMed2k), March 23-25, 2016 WSL, Switzerland (US$ 7’500) – PI

PAGES: Arctic driftwood at the interface of marine and terrestrial (paleo-) environmental research, April 27-30, 2016 Mógilsá, Iceland (US$ 4’000) – PI

PAGES: Overcoming reductionism when linking climate variability with human history – a cross-disciplinary approach in the Altai Mountains, Spring 2017 Krasnoyarsk, Russia (US$ 10’000) – PI together with Alex Kirdyanov

PALEO: 2000 years of PALeoclimatology and Ecology from Oak stable isotopes in the Czech Republic (Czech Science Foundation Grant # 17-22102S; CZK 10’000’000) – PI

TRÜFFEL: Natürliche Verbreitung und nachhaltige Nutzung von Burgunder Trüffeln (Tuber aestivum) in der Schweiz. (Ernst Göhner Stiftung; CHF 50’000) – PI (together with Simon Egli)

UPDATE: Updating the historical record of European oak tree-ring data (Columbia University, LDEO, NY; Dollar 4’500) – PI

VITA: Varves, ice cores and tree rings: archives with annual resolution (Swiss National Science Foundation, NCCR-Climate) – involved