Keynote Speakers

Sophie Nuber was born in 1990 in Hollerich, Luxembourg City, to a German mother and a Luxembourgish father. She attended Spillschoul in Hollerich and later the Frai Waldorfschoul op dem Limpertsberg. In 1998, life took an unexpected turn, and she moved to Stuttgart, Germany with her single mother and two brothers.

Academic studies

After completing her Abitur, Sophie set out to study the natural laws governing anthropogenic climate change. As no dedicated program existed, she began studying Environmental Science and Environmental Hydrology at the University of Freiburg. She soon realised that an essential part of the climate system was missing from the curriculum: the oceans. She therefore collected scientific student funds, and continued her education at the University of Sydney, Australia, specialising in marine and coral reef science. Her local experience with Indigenous Australians raised questions about how less privileged societies respond to climate change, leading her next to the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. Combining merits from institutions and graduating with a Bachelor in Science enabled her to pursue a Master of Science in Climate Change at University College London. Supported by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, she completed her degree, including a research visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA.

Becoming a professional Scientist

Sophie designed her PhD on past atmospheric CO₂ variability and climate change across Cardiff University and the University of St Andrews in the UK. Securing additional funding allowed her to conduct extracurricular research on ancient coral reef processes at the University of Nagoya, Japan. Her postdoctoral studies brought her to subtropical Taiwan diving and recording the local reefs to identify drivers of coral bleaching, as well as Seattle in the USA where she researches the processes that drive marine heat waves.

Life as a Scientist

Today, Sophie is internationally recognised for her paleo-climate research and her novel approaches in researching climate change with diverse interdisciplinary working groups. Her discoveries include new climate tipping points and climate-ecosystem interactions. She has attended the G7 Summit as one of the youngest female scientific advisers and accepted the Knowledge CRUI Award of the G7 on behalf of Malala Yousafzai. She was also the youngest keynote speaker at Taiwan’s Falling Walls Lab event in Taipei.

Art and Science

Sophie communicates science through podcasts and professional art projects, collaborating with artists, educators, and schools worldwide. She and her work have featured in Télécran and the Luxemburger Wort, and she is currently developing a new art–science project on corals and climate change with a Luxembourg-based artist.