Team
Over the years many people have contributed to CHELSA. The core team consists of everyone who currently builds, curates, or operates the datasets or models. The former team members have been hired at some point for the project. The collaborators lists everyone who has significantly contributed to the project on various fronts.
Core Team
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Dirk Nikolaus Karger
Project LeaderProject lead and head of the CHELSA team. Dirk leads the development of the CHELSA downscaling model.

Franziska Zilker
Technical staffFranziska leads the development of the CHELSAch-highres model for the application of CHELSA at very high spatial resolutions.

Niklaus E. Zimmermann
Founding memberSupports the project on various fronts…

Philipp Brun
ScientistPhilipp lead the development of the CHELSA-BIOCLIM+ dataset

Damiano Righetti
ScientistDamiano leads the development of CHELSA climate data for the ocean

Michael McCarthy
ScientistMichael works on the application of CHELSA on regional climate models in Armenia

Capucine Lechartre
PhD studentCapucine is developing an extension of the chelsa-cmip6 python package
Former team members

Liangzhi Chen
Postdoctoral Researcher (2022 – 2024)Liangzhi developed the CHELSA-drought-indicies dataset

Johanna Malle
Postdoctoral Researcher (2022 - 2024)Johanna worked on the CHELSA-W5E5 dataset for ISIMIP

Chantal Hari
Intern (2021)Chantal worked on the validation of the CHELSA-W5E5 data for ISIMIP

Babek Dabaghchian
Technical staff (2019 – 2020)Babek created the CHELSA EUR11 dataset

Rodrigo Wilber Soria-Auza
Postdoc (2009-2011)Rodrigo worked on the first version of CHELSA
Collaborators

Jürgen Böhner
Founding memberJürgen developed the idea for CHELSA with the other founding members and provided seed funding

Olaf Conrad
Founding memberOlaf developed the underlying C++ code for CHELSA and is the lead developer of SAGA GIS on which CHELSA depends

Yohann Chauvier
Yohann worked on the chelsa-cmip6 python package

Flavien Collart
Flavien worked on the CHELSACanaryClim dataset

Gabriel Dettling
Gabriel created the CHELSA-CMIP5 dataset

Katja Frieler
Katja integrated CHELSA into ISIMIP

Catherine H. Graham
Catherine aquired funding for the CHELSA-EUR11 dataset

Gregor Joren Janzing
Joren worked on the CHELSAcerra dataset

Walter Jetz
Walter provided funding for CHELSA-EarthEnv

Tobias Kawohl
Tobias helped developing the temperature downscaling in CHELSA

Michael Kessler
Founding memberMichael developed the initial idea for CHELSA and led the project until 2017

Holger Kreft
Founding memberHolger developed the idea for CHELSA with the other founding members and provided seed funding

Stefan Lange
Stefan worked on the development of CHELSA-W5E5 and the integration into ISIMIP

H. Peter Linder
Founding memberPeter developed the idea for CHELSA with the other founding members and provided seed funding

Colin Mahony
Colin worked on the integration of cloud cover into precipitation downscaling

Michael Nobis
Michael helped with the CHELSA-TraCE21k dataset

Signe Normand
Signe helped with the CHELSA-TraCE21k dataset

Jairo Patiño
Jairo led the development of CHELSACanaryClim

Loïc Pellissier
Loic supported the project in various projects, from BIOCLIM+ to CHELSAocean

Christopher O.P. Reyer
Christopher integrated CHELSA into ISIMIP

Dirk Schmatz
Dirk worked on the CHELSA-CMIP5 dataset

Wilfried Thullier
Wilfried aquired funding for the CHELSA-EUR11 dataset

Adam M. Wilson
Adam worked on the integration of cloud cover into precipitation downscaling