Lilian Schuster

Interested in sustainability, climate change science & glacier modelling

I like spending time in the mountains!

About me

Currently, I am working in two part-time positions as a Scientific Researcher in Civil Protection Resilience at the Fraunhofer EMI Institute in Efringen-Kirchen, Germany and as a Postdoctoral Researcher in large-scale glacier modelling at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium (remote). Looking ahead, from July 2027 onwards, I am looking for a PostDoc position or any other role that includes sustainable interdisciplinary data analysis, visualisation, and interpretation. It would be great to stay near the mountains!

Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences (ACINN), Universität Innsbruck. For my PhD, I worked with the Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM) on the topic of “Improving our understanding of future multi-century mountain glacier changes and runoff”, supervised by Fabien Maussion and David Rounce. My work focused on large-scale mountain glacier mass-balance model calibration and projection uncertainties, as well as on more public- and policy-relevant multi-century glacier mass and runoff projections. A selection of my most important preprints and publications is provided below. A complete list of contributions is available under publications and preprints.

I am still a part of the OGGM community and was an active part of the Glacier Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (GlacierMIP3) and of an interdisciplinary project on climate change impact research (PROVIDE EU H2020 project). I like to engage in climate and glacier change communication projects. These include workshops and excursions to glaciers, glacier projection visualizations for reports (e.g. State of the Cryosphere 2023 and 2024 reports), and the “Goodbye Glaciers” initiative — a hiking signpost project and website about future glacier loss, with a focus on Central Europe.

Education & previous research

I hold an M.Sc. and PhD in Atmospheric Sciences with a focus on Climate and Glacier Modelling from the Universität Innsbruck, Austria. My Master’s thesis topic was the Response time sensitivity of glaciers using the open global glacier model: from idealised experiments to an estimate for alpine glaciers, supervised by Fabien Maussion. During my Master’s studies, I also worked as a student research assistant on the climatology of precipitation and moisture sources over an arid region in Northeast Greenland as part of the Northeast Greenland Caves Project, led by Gina Moseley, which resulted in a publication (Schuster et al., 2021).

Previously, I earned a B.Sc. in Physics at the Universität Konstanz, Germany, complemented by an internship at the Andøya Space Center in Norway, where I worked on my Bachelor thesis about simulating height-dependent solar UV irradiance in the mesopause region.

selected publications or preprints

Irreversible glacier change and trough water for centuries after overshooting 1.5 °C

Lilian Schuster, Fabien Maussion, David R Rounce, Lizz Ultee, Patrick Schmitt, Fabrice Lacroix, Thomas Frölicher, and Carl-Friedrich Schleussner

Nature Climate Change, May 2025

DOI Bib

@article{Schuster2025,
  author = {Schuster, Lilian and Maussion, Fabien and Rounce, David R and Ultee, Lizz and Schmitt, Patrick and Lacroix, Fabrice and Frölicher, Thomas and Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich},
  title = {Irreversible glacier change and trough water for centuries after overshooting 1.5 °C},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02318-w},
  doi = {10.1038/s41558-025-02318-w},
  month = may,
  year = {2025},
  journal = {Nature Climate Change},
  volume = {15},
  pages = {634–641}
}

Glacier preservation doubled by limiting warming to 1.5°C versus 2.7°C

Harry Zekollari, Lilian Schuster, Fabien Maussion, Regine Hock, Ben Marzeion, David R. Rounce, Loris Compagno, Koji Fujita, Matthias Huss, Megan James, Philip D. A. Kraaijenbrink, William H. Lipscomb, Samar Minallah, Moritz Oberrauch, Lander Van Tricht, Nicolas Champollion, Tamsin Edwards, Daniel Farinotti, Walter Immerzeel, Gunter Leguy, and Akiko Sakai

Science, May 2025

Harry Zekollari and Lilian Schuster contributed equally.

DOI Bib PDF

@article{ZekollariSchuster_gmip3_community,
  author = {Zekollari, Harry and Schuster, Lilian and Maussion, Fabien and Hock, Regine and Marzeion, Ben and Rounce, David R. and Compagno, Loris and Fujita, Koji and Huss, Matthias and James, Megan and Kraaijenbrink, Philip D. A. and Lipscomb, William H. and Minallah, Samar and Oberrauch, Moritz and Van Tricht, Lander and Champollion, Nicolas and Edwards, Tamsin and Farinotti, Daniel and Immerzeel, Walter and Leguy, Gunter and Sakai, Akiko},
  title = {{Glacier preservation doubled by limiting warming to 1.5°C versus 2.7°C}},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {Science},
  note = {Harry Zekollari and Lilian Schuster contributed equally.},
  doi = {10.1126/science.adu4675},
  month = may,
  volume = {388},
  pages = {979-983},
}

Glacier projections sensitivity to temperature-index model choices and calibration strategies

Lilian Schuster, David R. Rounce, and Fabien Maussion

Annals of Glaciology, May 2023

DOI Bib

@article{Schuster2023,
  title = {Glacier projections sensitivity to temperature-index model choices and calibration strategies},
  volume = {64},
  doi = {10.1017/aog.2023.57},
  number = {92},
  journal = {Annals of Glaciology},
  author = {Schuster, Lilian and Rounce, David R. and Maussion, Fabien},
  year = {2023},
  pages = {293–308},
}

Lagrangian detection of precipitation moisture sources for an arid region in northeast Greenland: relations to the North Atlantic Oscillation, sea ice cover, and temporal trends from 1979 to 2017

Lilian Schuster, Fabien Maussion, Lukas Langhamer, and Gina E. Moseley

Weather and Climate Dynamics, May 2021

DOI Bib

@article{wcd-2-1-2021,
  author = {Schuster, Lilian and Maussion, Fabien and Langhamer, Lukas and Moseley, Gina E.},
  title = {Lagrangian detection of precipitation moisture sources for an arid region in northeast Greenland: relations to the North Atlantic Oscillation, sea ice cover, and temporal trends from 1979 to 2017},
  journal = {Weather and Climate Dynamics},
  volume = {2},
  year = {2021},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1--17},
  url = {https://wcd.copernicus.org/articles/2/1/2021/},
  doi = {10.5194/wcd-2-1-2021},
}