Axel Timmermann is a German climate physicist and oceanographer with an interest in climate dynamics, human migration, dynamical systems' analysis, ice-sheet modeling and sea level. He served a co-author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report and a lead author of IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. His research has been cited over 18,000 times and has an h-index of 70 and i10-index of 161. In 2017, he became a Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University and the founding Director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Climate Physics. In December 2018, the Center began to utilize a 1.43-petaflop Cray XC50 supercomputer, named Aleph, for climate physics research.
Education He received a B.S. in physics and M.S. in theoretical physics in 1992 and 1995, respectively, from the University of Marburg in Germany. He worked as a research assistant for several years at the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology before completing a Ph.D. in meteorology in 1999 at the University of Hamburg.
Career Timmermann worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Netherlands and Hawaii before becoming a principal investigator of the DFG Research Group at the Institut fuer Meerskunde in Kiel. In 2004 he moved to Hawaii and worked as an Associate Professor and later Full Professor in the Department of Oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii. In 2017, he relocated to Busan, South Korea to head up the new IBS Center for Climate Physics in Pusan University. He has been a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in the cross-field category in 2018, 2019, and 2023 and also environment and ecology in 2020 and 2021.
Honors and awards 2025: Honorary Busan citizenship 2022: National R&D Performance Award, Ministry of Science and ICT 2020: Commendation for Center for Climate Physics, Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning 2018: Scientist of the Year Award, Korea Science Journalists Association 2017: Milutin Milankovic Medal of the European Geosciences Union 2015: Elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union 2015: University of Hawaii, Regents' Medal for Excellence in Research 2007: Rosenstiel Award of the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science (RSMAS), Miami 2006: Rosenstiel Award for Outstanding Achievement and Distinction in Oceanographic Science, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, Florida
Publications
ENSO Response to Greenhouse Forcing, Wenju Cai, Agus Santoso, Guojian Wang, Lixin Wu, Mat Collins, Matthieu Lengaigne, Scott Power, Axel Timmermann, El Niño Southern Oscillation in a Changing Climate 253, 289, , doi: 10.1002/9781119548164.ch13, 2020 A low order dynamical model for runoff predictability, Roman Olson, Axel Timmermann, June-Yi Lee, Soon-Il An, Climate Dynamics, doi: 10.1007/s00382-020-05479-w, 2020 Fokker–Planck dynamics of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Soon-Il An, Soong-Ki Kim, Axel Timmermann, Scientific Reports, 10, 16283, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73449-7, 2020 Atmospheric nitrous oxide variations on centennial time scales during the past two millennia, Y. Ryu, J. Ahn, J.-W. Yang, E. J. Brook, A. Timmermann, T. Blunier, S. Hur, S.-J. Kim, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 34(9), e2020GB006568, doi: 10.1029/2020GB006568, 2020 Simulating Marine Isotope Stage 7 with a coupled climate-ice sheet model, Dipayan Choudhury, Axel Timmermann, Fabian Schloesser, Malte Heinemann, David Pollard, Climate of the Past, doi: 10.5194/cp-2020-46, 2020
Quantifying the potential causes of Neanderthal extinction: abrupt climate change versus competition and interbreeding, Axel Timmermann, Quaternary Science Reviews, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106331, 2020 Future changes of summer monsoon characteristics and evaporative demand over Asia in CMIP6 simulations, Kyung-Ja Ha, Suyeon Moon, Axel Timmermann, Daeha Kim, Geophysical Research Letters, 47 (8), e2020GL087492, doi: 10.1029/2020GL087492, 2020
Nonlinear response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to late Quaternary sea level and climate forcing, Michelle Tigchelaar, Axel Timmermann, Tobias Friedrich, Malte Heinemann, David Pollard, The Cryosphere, doi: 10.5194/tc-13-2615-2019, 2019 Mediterranean winter rainfall in phase with African monsoons during the past 1.36 million years, Bernd Wagner, Hendrik Vogel, Alexander Francke, Tobias Friedrich, Timme Donders, Jack H. Lacey, Melanie J. Leng, Eleonora Regattieri, Laura Sadori, Thomas Wilke, Giovanni Zanchetta, Christian Albrecht, Adele Bertini, Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout, Aleksandra Cvetkoska, Biagio Giaccio, Andon Grazhdani, Torsten Hauffe, Jens Holtvoeth, Sebastien Joannin, Elena Jovanovska, Janna Just, Katerina Kouli, Ilias Kousis, Andreas Koutsodendris, Sebastian Krastel, Markus Lagos, Niklas Leicher, Zlatko Levkov, Katja Lindhorst, Alessia Masi, Martin Melles, Anna M. Mercuri, Sebastien Nomade, Norbert Nowaczyk, Konstantinos Panagiotopoulos, Odile Peyron, Jane M. Reed, Leonardo Sagnotti, Gaia Sinopoli, Björn Stelbrink, Roberto Sulpizio, Axel Timmermann, Slavica Tofilovska, Paola Torri, Friederike Wagner-Cremer, Thomas Wonik, Xiaosen Zhang, Nature, 573 (7773), 256-260, doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1529-0, 2019 Drivers of Late Pleistocene human survival and dispersal: an agent-based modeling and machine learning approach, Ali R. Vahdati, John David Weissmann, Axel Timmermann, Marcia S.Ponce de León, Christoph P.E.Zollikofer, Quaternary Science Reviews, 221, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105867, 2019 North American April tornado occurrences linked to global sea surface temperature anomalies, Jung-Eun Chu, Axel Timmermann, June-Yi Lee, Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw9950, 2019 Antarctic iceberg impacts on future Southern Hemisphere Climate, Fabian Schloesser, Tobias Friedrich, Axel Timmermann, Robert M. DeConto, David Pollard, Nature Climate Change, 9(9), 672-677, doi: 10.1038/s41558-019-0546-1, 2019 A drift-free decadal climate prediction system for the Community Earth System Model, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Axel Timmermann, Matthew J. Widlansky, Shaoqing Zhang, Magdalena A. Balmaseda, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0788.1, 2019 Saharan green corridors and Middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals across the Eastern Desert, Sudan, M. Masojć, A. Nassr, J. Y. Kim, J. Krupa-Kurzynowska, Y. K. Sohn, M. Szmit, J. C. Kim, J. S. Kim, H. W. Choi, M. Wieczorek, A. Timmermann, Journal of Human Evolution, 130, 141-150, doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.01.004, 2019 Calibration uncertainties of tropical Pacific climate reconstructions over the Last Millennium, K.-S. Yun, A. Timmermann, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0524.1, 2019 Reconciling opposing Walker circulation trends in observations and model projections, E.-S. Chung, A. Timmermann, B. J. Soden, K.-J. Ha, L, Shi, V, O. John, Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/s41558-019-0446-4, 2019 Sea ice variability in the southern Norwegian Sea during glacial Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles, H. Sadatzki, T. M. Dokken, S. M. P. Berben, F. Muschitiello, R. Stein, K. Fahl, L. Menviel, A. Timmermann, E. Jansen, Science Advances, 5(3), doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau6174, 2019 Glacial changes in tropical climate amplified by the Indian Ocean, P. N. DiNezio, J. E. Tierney, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, A. Timmermann, T. Bhattacharya, N. Rosenbloom, E. Brady, Science Advances, 4(12), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat9658, 2018 Drivers of future seasonal cycle changes in oceanic pCO2, M. A Gallego, A Timmermann, T Friedrich, R E. Zeebe, Biogeosciences, 15, 5315-5327, doi: 10.5194/bg-15-5315-2018, 2018 Disentangling Impacts of Dynamic and Thermodynamic Components on Late Summer Rainfall Anomalies in East Asia, H Oh, K.-J Ha, A Timmermann, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 0(0), 1-11, doi: 10.1029/2018JD028652, 2018 El Niño–Southern Oscillation complexity, A Timmermann, S-I An, J-S Kug, F-F Jin, W Cai, A Capotondi, K Cobb, M Lengaigne, M J. McPhaden, M F. Stuecker, K Stein, A T. Wittenberg, K-S Yun, T Bayr, H-C Chen, Y Chikamoto, B Dewitte, D Dommenget, P Grothe, E Guilyardi, Y-G Ham, M Hayashi, S Ineson, D Kang, S Kim, WM Kim, J-Y Lee, T Li, J-J Luo, S McGregor, Y Planton, S Power, H Rashid, H-L Ren, A Santoso, K Takahashi, A Todd, G Wang, G Wang, R Xie, W-H Yang, S-W Yeh, J Yoon, E Zeller, X Zhang, Nature, 559, 535-545, doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0252-6, 2018 Did our species evolve in subdivided populations across Africa, and why does it matter?, E M.L. Scerri, M G. Thomas, A Manica, P Gunz, J T. Stock, C Stringer, M Grove, H S. Groucutt, A Timmermann, G. P Rightmire, F d'Errico, C A. Tryon, N A. Drake, A S. Brooks, R W. Dennell, R W. Dennell, R Durbin, B M. Henn, J L-Thorp, P deMenocal, M D. Petraglia, J C. Thompson, A Scally, L Chikhi, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.005, 2018 Local insolation changes enhance Antarctic interglacials: Insights from an 800,000-year ice sheet simulation with transient climate forcing, M Tigchelaar, A Timmermann, D Pollard, T Friedrich, M Heinemann, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 495, 69-78, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2018.05.004, 2018 Precession and atmospheric CO2 modulated variability of sea ice in the central Okhotsk Sea since 130,000 years ago, L Lo, S T. Belt, J Lattaud, T Friedrich, C Zeeden, S Schouten, L Smik, A Timmermann, P Cabedo-Sanz, J-J Huang, L Zhou, T-H Ou, Y-P Chang, L-C Wang, Y-M Chou, C-C Shen, M-T Chen, K-Y Wei, S-R Song, T-H Fang, S A. Gorbarenko, W-L Wang, T-Q Lee, H Elderfield, D A. Hodell, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2018.02.005, 2018 Decadal Monsoon-ENSO relationships re-examined, KS Yun, A Timmermann, Geophysical Research Letters, 45 (4), doi: 10.1002/2017GL076912, 2018 (Un)predictability of strong El Niño events, J Guckenheimer, A Timmermann, H Dijkstra, A Roberts, Dynamics and Statistics of the Climate System, doi: 10.1093/climsys/dzx004, 2017 Multi-year predictability of climate, drought, and wildfire in southwestern North America, Y Chikamoto, A Timmermann, M Widlansky, MA Balmaseda, L Stott, Scientific Reports, 7, 6568, doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06869-7, 2017 Revisiting ENSO/Indian Ocean Dipole phase relationships, M Stuecker, A Timmermann, FF Jin, Y Chikamoto, W Zhang, Geophysical Research Letters, 44, doi: 10.1002/2016GL072308, 2017 Nonlinear climate sensitivity and its implications for future greenhouse warming, T Friedrich, A Timmermann, M Tigchelaar, O Elison Timm, A Ganopolski, Science Advances, 2 (11), doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1501923, 2016 Unraveling El Niño's impact on the East Asian Monsoon and Yangtze River summer flooding, W Zhang, FF Jin, MF Stuecker, AT Wittenberg, A Timmermann, HL Ren, Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (21), doi 10.1002/2016GL071190, 2016 Tropical Pacific SST drivers of recent Antarctic sea ice trends, A Purich, M England, W Cai, Y Chikamoto, A Timmermann, J Fyfe, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175 JCLI-D-16, 2016 Strong middepth warming and weak radiocarbon imprints in the equatorial Atlantic during Heinrich 1 and Younger Dryas, S Weldeab, T Friedrich, A Timmermann, R Schneider Paleoceanography 31, doi: 10.1002/2016PA002957, 2016 Potential tropical Atlantic impacts on Pacific decadal climate trends, Y Chikamoto, T Mochizuki, A Timmermann, M Kimoto, M Watanabe, Geophysical Research Letters 43, 10.1002/2016GL069544, 2016 The climate response of the Indo-Pacific warm pool to glacial sea level, PN Di Nezio, A Timmermann, JE Tierney, FF Jin, B Otto-Bliesner, Paleoceanography, doi: 10.1002/2015PA002890, 2016 Reply to "Comments on Combination Mode Dynamics of the Anomalous Northwest Pacific Anticyclone", MF Stuecker, FF Jin, A Timmermann, S McGregor J. Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0558, 2016 Late Pleistocene climate drivers of early human migration A Timmermann, To. Friedrich, Nature, 538 (92-95), doi: 10.1038/nature19365, 2016