Prof. Dr. Nicolas Gruber
Prof. Dr. Nicolas Gruber
Full Professor at the Department of Environmental Systems Science
Head of Dep. of Environmental Systems Science / Head of Kommission für gute wiss. Praxis
ETH Zürich
Additional information
Research area
Dr. Gruber's research interests are the study of biogeochemical cycles on regional to global scales and on timescales from months to millennia, with a particular focus on the interaction of these cycles with Earth's climate system.
His goal is to better understand the physical, chemical and biological processes that control these cycles and to be able to make predictions for the future, especially with regard to the potential feedbacks between the global carbon cycle and a changing climate. His primary research tools are the interpretation and analysis of observational data coupled with the use of models ranging in complexity from simple box models to high-resolution general circulation models.
Nicolas Gruber has been Full Professor of Environmental Physics at the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich since July 2006.
Dr. Gruber was born in Peru in 1968, and moved to Switzerland at the age of 6.
After his Matura in 1989, he was among the first students to enter the new Environmental Sciences degree program at ETH Zurich. As part of his undergraduate studies, he spent one year at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, where he worked with the late Charles D. Keeling, sparking his interests in the human perturbation of the global carbon cycle. After earning his diploma degree in 1993, Dr. Gruber went to the University of Bern for his Ph.D. studies, which he completed in 1997. He then worked for three years as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University. In 2000, he joined the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, first as an assistant professor, and from 2005 until 2007 as a tenured associate professor. In 2006, he was appointed as a full professor at ETH Zurich.
Dr. Gruber has written over 240 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 20 having appeared in Science, Nature, and the offsprings of Nature.
Additional information
Dr. Gruber, together with Jorge Sarmiento from Princeton University, is author of the textbook "Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics" that has become a standard text in the field. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Marine Sciences, Dr. Gruber received the Rosenstiel Award from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Miami in 2004. In 2012 he was elected fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and in 2024 he received the Roger Revelle Medal of AGU for his unrivaled contribution to the understanding of the role of the ocean as a sink for man-made CO2. He is member of several international research boards, was member of the governing board of Climate-KIC, and serves as review editor for the Science Magazine and as an editor for AGU Advances.
Course Catalogue
Spring Semester 2025
| Number | Unit |
|---|---|
| 151-0928-00L | CO2 Capture and Storage and the Industry of Carbon-Based Resources |
| 651-4095-01L | Colloquium Atmosphere and Climate 1 |
| 651-4095-02L | Colloquium Atmosphere and Climate 2 |
| 651-4095-03L | Colloquium Atmosphere and Climate 3 |
| 701-1302-00L | Term Paper 2: Seminar |
| 701-1303-00L | Term Paper 1: Writing |
| 701-1317-00L | Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Climate |
| 743-0001-00L | CAS ETH in Climate Innovation |
Publications
Prof. N. Gruber has authored over 130 peer-reviewed publications in the field's leading journals including over 15 in Science and Nature. Link to Publication list.
Textbook (Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics)
Prof. N. Gruber has co-authored the textbook Ocean Biogeochemical Dynamics (Princeton Univ. Press, 2006) together with Prof. J. Sarmiento from Princeton University. Link to Textbook.