Niels Dutrievoz
Niels Dutrievoz
Postdoc · LSCE–IPSL

Niels Dutrievoz

Postdoctoral researcher in polar climate modelling

I study the atmospheric water cycle in Antarctica with isotope-enabled models and field observations, from the snow surface to the large-scale dynamics that bring moisture to the ice sheet.

01

Research

Water isotopes, boundary layer, atmospheric rivers, blowing snow.

02

Publications

Articles, preprints, PhD thesis, open data & code.

03

Outreach

Ordres de grandeur, a book, an expedition to Antarctica.

04

Teaching

Climate physics and the Anthropocene at ENSTA Paris.

About

After a PhD at LSCE with Cécile Agosta, I am a postdoctoral researcher at LSCE with Mathieu Casado, studying snow–vapour interactions during Antarctic atmospheric rivers and how extreme events are archived in ice cores. From November 2026, I will join SLF in Davos to model airborne snow metamorphism and its isotopic imprint on polar snow. I co-lead the water stable isotope working group of Antarctica InSync with Sonja Wahl and Amy Macfarlane.

Sharing science beyond academia and strengthening the dialogue between science and society are just as central to my work. This is why I co-organised the Antarctica 2.0°C expedition and co-created the science channel Ordres de grandeur (100,000+ followers), which led to our book De la fourmi à la galaxie (Vuibert, 2026).

Latest publications All publications →

De la fourmi à la galaxie (Vuibert, 2026)

New book · Vuibert, October 2026

De la fourmi à la galaxie

100 questions to understand life, the Earth, infinity and beyond - written with Baptiste Arnaud and Arthur Gublin, the team behind the science channel Ordres de grandeur (100k+ followers, 26M+ views).

Order the book Outreach

News

  • November 2026 - Starting a two-year postdoc at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF (Davos, Switzerland) with Benjamin Walter, on the modelling of airborne snow metamorphism and its isotopic imprint on polar snow (SNSF-funded project).
  • October 2026 - Oral presentation at IPICS 2026 (International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences, Banff, Canada, October 11-16), in the session Climate proxy interpretation on October 14: Identifying atmospheric river signatures in Antarctic ice core records: a model–data approach.
  • October 2026 - Our book De la fourmi à la galaxie (Vuibert), co-written with Baptiste Arnaud and Arthur Gublin from Ordres de grandeur, is out!
  • April 2026 - New paper submitted to JAMES: Improving isotopic surface fluxes over snow in LMDZ6iso. We implement fractionation during sublimation and a new formulation of surface condensation in LMDZ6iso, which improves the simulated diurnal cycle of vapour isotopes at Concordia.
  • February 2026 - My second first-author paper is published in The Cryosphere: Water vapour isotope anomalies during an atmospheric river event at Dome C, East Antarctica.
  • February 2026 - The WisoMIP paper, which I co-authored, is published in JGR: Atmospheres.
  • 2 December 2025 - PhD defense at LSCE, Université Paris-Saclay. The thesis is available on theses.fr.
  • October 2025 - Appearance on the France Culture programme Les Chantiers de la recherche to present my PhD work (video).
Older news
  • June 2025 - Presented LSCE’s polar research at the Cryosphere Pavilion of the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice.
  • May 2025 - Co-led a session on science communication and social media as part of the Best Practices Guide for Science Communication and Mediation organized by the Centre Climat-Société (C2S) (May 26, IPSL Jussieu).
  • May 2025 - Participation in the AARG Workshop on Atmospheric Rivers, Grenoble, May 5–8.
  • April 2025 - Oral presentation at EGU 2025, session AS1.22 (abstract, slides).
  • February 2025 - New paper in JGR: Atmospheres, evaluating LMDZ6iso in Antarctica against surface snow, precipitation and water vapour isotope observations.
  • January 2025 - Guest on the radio show Fréquence Recherche alongside Julien Bobroff.
  • April 2024 - Poster at EGU 2024, session AS1.19 (abstract).

Curriculum

Path

2026 → 2028

Postdoctoral researcher - Snow isotope modelling

WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
Davos, CH · from Nov. 2026
2026

Postdoctoral researcher - Atmospheric rivers & ice cores

LSCE–IPSL · Université Paris-Saclay
Gif-sur-Yvette, FR
2022 → 2025

PhD - Atmospheric sciences

LSCE–IPSL · Université Paris-Saclay
Gif-sur-Yvette, FR
2021 → 2022

Antarctica 2.0°C - Sailing expedition & fieldwork

Juste 2.0°C · ENS Paris-Saclay
Marseille → Antarctic Peninsula
2020 → 2021

Master 2 - Geosciences

École Normale Supérieure (Ulm)
Paris, FR
2018 → 2022

Normalien - Department of Biology

École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay
Gif-sur-Yvette, FR

- Contact -

Address
LSCE–IPSL
Orme des Merisiers, Building 703
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Email
niels.dutrievoz@proton.me