Jakob Steiner

About

Academic CVShort CV

I have a degree in Violoncello (with Michael Hell) and Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich focusing on hydraulics and hydrology (where my original focus was on (sub-)surface hydrology with Wolfgang Kinzelbach), followed by a PhD in Physical Geography at Universiteit Utrecht (with Walter Immerzeel and Marc Bierkens).

Currently I am a PostDoc Fellow at the University of Graz (Austria) and at the Himalayan University Consortium (hosted at ICIMOD in Kathmandu, Nepal) and am based in Islamabad, Pakistan.

My work experience outside academia includes running a cultural calendar for Lahore, Pakistan (www.danka.pk, now defunct) as well as leading humanitarian aid projects in KP and AJK, Pakistan. I worked for multiple years at hydrosolutions, a Swiss consultancy in the water sector as well as at ICIMOD, a governmental organisation in the Hindukush Himalaya region. I have been responsible for sizeable research and development budgets and have experience leading teams, especially where capacity development of junior staff in complex and diverse cultural contexts is crucial. My consultancy experience revolves around water resource management as well as hazardscapes and risks in mountains (see details on my consultancy work). My research is focused on high mountain hydrology, hazards and risks as well as cryosphere studies in Greenland (details on past and ongoing research). I have lived and worked in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Pakistan and Nepal and have additional field experience in Central Asia, the Gulf, Eastern Europe and China. I speak German, English, Italian, Urdu, and Hindi, can survive in Nepali and Dutch at 6000 m or at sea level and if you force me will talk to you in French. I have installed discharge stations speaking Chinese, but they don't work anymore.

Research

I completed my Concert Diploma in 2013, MSc in 2014 and PhD in 2021.

The core principles that underline all my research are an investment in mentorship for early career scientists and practictioners especially in the Global South (resulting in many research papers where I contributed well beyond the usual amount of a co-author), FAIR data and methods, while keeping in mind the challenges to data sharing in an academic environment with often unequal relationships of power and political sensitivities (see my github for documentation) and, where possible, a focus on collaboration across disciplines and questioning of research value for the 'real' world.

Beyond publishing papers I have chaired multiple conference sessions (AGU as well as smaller regional conferences) and am also engaged in capacity building for scientists through workshops and trainings organised under the Himalayan University Consortium.

I am actively engaged in a number of working groups, including the IACS debris cover working group (lead of manual development), the IACS/MRI joint body on snow cover, the MRI TG 2.3 on socio-economic variables in mountain environments, the INARCH/COPE snow network, RGI7.0 and the Cryosphere and Society and High Mountain Data WG at HUC.

While I do have experience with remote sensing as well as modelling, my core strength lies in field work (with multiple field seasons in the HKH and Greenland and experience in sensor technology, installation and maintenance) and spanning bridges across disciplines and research groups.

You can find a more or less up to date list of my academic papers on Google Scholar.

Student supervision

PhD comittees/external

Ice cliffs

(active FWF funded project LATTICE 2023 - 2028, PI: Rainer Prinz, University of Innsbruck)

I have been working on multiple aspects of ice cliffs on debris-covered glaciers during my MSc and PhD studies and have more recently also investigated steep ice features along the Greenland ice margin - see a review we wrote on the topic in Annals of Glaciology. The topic is relatively niche, and plays a minor role in mountain hydrology for water resources or in Greenland for ice flux at the margin, but provide a potential window in understanding unsolved problems of ice dynamics and in the end are simply fascinating to work on in the field.

HI-WISE

(Assessment report on the state of knowledge on mountain water, ice, society and ecosystems published by ICIMOD)

The HI-WISE report is a flagship report of ICIMOD, developed with 35 co-authors between 2020 and 2023, for which I acted as Editor for the whole report, lead author for two of five chapters and contributing author for another chapter.

HIRISK

(active fund 2023 - 2024)

Documenting mountain hazards but acknowledging the gap in our understanding of exposure and vulnerabilities has led to more focus on investigating risks in mountain environments. We documented transboundary risks for Adaptation without Borders (SEI, IDDRI) for their risk report, we work with Bristol University and local partners on similar issues in the Upper Indus Basin and I lead a project on a mountain risk data platform for high mountain Asia (to be launched in 2024).

HIMASS

Ongoing research development on sediment budgets in (high) mountain and glaciated environments.

On experts

I have a strong interest in the meta level of knowledge creation and use (including in my own academic field), especially in a post-colonial context. I am convinced that keeping the power imbalances in knowledge creation in view is crucial to be able to solve issues, especially when moving into 'Loss and Damage' or 'Climate change and conflict' discussions. I have written on the skewed perception of Pakistan in the western imagination and the history of a colonialist from my homeland.

REAMO

REAMO with Utrecht University and ICIMOD

Teaching

I teach single lectures as part of courses at Utrecht University (Netherlands, Glaciology and Mountain Hazards, Physical Geography, MSc), LUMS (Pakistan, Remote Sensing of Snow, Engineering Department, MSc) and a complete course at University of Tübingen (Germany, Indigenous and local knowledge in climate science, Global Awareness, MSc). I have also taught at the BSc level at University of Graz (Hydrology) and conducted trainings for academics and practicioners in High Mountain Asia at ICIMOD (Nepal, Pakistan). All teaching slides are accessible here.

I regularly talk to school children through the Skype-a-Scientist network.

Consultancy

x-hydrolab is my work arm outside pure research. The site remains under construction for now, and actively only exists as a Slack space, functioning as a network of early career scientists working on mountains and associated change and risk. If you are interested to join, please get in touch via email.

I have past and ongoing consultancy engagements with hydrosolutions ltd. (Switzerland, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China), the Stimson Center (Nepal, Pakistan) and TBU (Austria, Italy, UAE, Bulgaria).

Writing

Rugpundits is a collaborative blog that hosts some of my writing outside of the peer reviewed domain and stems from a time when I had more time to engage in discussions of political thought and data, mainly in the geographical realm of Central and South Asia.

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';