Prof. Dr. Rolf Kipfer

Lecturer at the Department of Environmental Systems Science

EAWAG

Abteilung Wasserresourcen und Trin

Überlandstrasse 133

8600 Dübendorf

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

Rolf Kipfer’s main research focus is:

The analysis of physical transport and exchange processes in the natural environment and the hydrosphere (e.g. lakes, groundwater, porous media, gas hydrates etc.).

Tracer hydrology (e.g. water-dating, gas/water partitioning in open water, porous media, firn and ice etc.).

The development and application of noble gases and other transient tracer methods, and isotopic techniques (e.g. stable isotope analysis on single compounds) in environmental science.

The reconstruction of global and environmental change using different natural aquatic archives (e.g. groundwater, lacustrine sediments, firn and ice, speleothemes etc.)

Rolf Kipfer has been an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollution Dynamics in the Department of Environmental Sciences since 2008. He is also Head of the Department of Water Resources and Drinking Water at Eawag, the Swiss Federal institute for Aquatic Science and Technology.

He was born in Zurich in 1962.

Rolf Kipfer obtained a diploma in earth sciences at ETH Zurich in 1986, where he went on to complete a PhD in 1991.

From 1991-1996 he worked as a senior assistant and lecturer at ETH Zurich.

Since 1996 Rolf Kipfer has been a senior scientist and Head of the Environmental Isotopes Group of the Department of Water Resources and Drinking Water at Eawag.

Membership

Since	Membership
1999	Member of KNE, the Commission for Nuclear Waste Disposal, which advises the Swiss government on geological and environmental aspects of nuclear waste disposal.

Additional information

2010 ̶̶ present: Co-PI: STALCLIM: Multi-proxy climate and environmental reconstructions from stalagmites from Switzerland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and India (SNF Synergia: ~ CHF 1.6 million.).

2009 ̶̶ present: PI: The Swiss contribution to the Lake Van Drilling Project: 500'000 years of environmental and climate change in Eastern Anatolia (SNSF project: CHF 1.5 million).

2008 ̶̶ present: PI of the Swiss contribution to the International Continental Deep Drilling Project (ICDP) on Lake Van (PaleoVan): > USD 750'000 to cover part of the drilling cost.

2007 ̶̶ present: Research program for the use of noble gases in speleothemes to reconstruct past environmental conditions (ETH-Zurich research program).

2007 ̶̶ present: Assessment and modeling of coupled ecological and hydrological dynamics in the restored corridor of a river with special emphasis on the O2 dynamics during groundwater infiltration (ETH Zurich CCES program, Total: ~ CHF 1.8 million).

2000 ̶̶ present: Research program on noble gases in sediment pore waters to reconstruct environmental conditions and ecological state in lakes and ocean (SNSF).

Course Catalogue

Spring Semester 2024

Number	Unit
701-0401-AAL	Hydrosphere
701-0401-00L	Hydrosphere
701-1302-00L	Term Paper 2: Seminar
701-1303-00L	Term Paper 1: Writing