On 11 March 2026, the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE/IPSL) hosted the symposium “Past Climates, Oxygen Isotopes and Deep-Lake Ostracods: A Tribute to the Career of Dr Ulrich von Grafenstein”, organised to mark the retirement of Ulrich von Grafenstein, a researcher at the LSCE for many years.
Bringing together around fifteen researchers from France, Germany, Italy and Austria, the event was held in the auditorium of the Lumen building on the campus of the Université Paris-Saclay. It gathered colleagues, former collaborators and former students of Uli, reflecting the breadth and depth of the scientific and personal bonds forged throughout his career..
A Scientific programme worthy of an exceptional career
The day began with an address from the LSCE directorate, acknowledging Uli’s contribution to the international scientific community. Jean Jouzel (LSCE) opened the presentations with a talk on the abrupt 8.2 ka climate event, whose record in the sediments of the Ammersee — published in 1998 — remains one of Uli’s most cited contributions. This was followed by talks from Fabien Arnaud (EDYTEM) on Lac du Bourget, Emmanuel Chapron (GEODE) on the coring and seismic mapping campaigns carried out with Uli across Europe, and Jérôme Nomade (IsTERRE) on Uli’s various field study sites east of the Alps. The morning concluded with the screening of a video retracing Uli’s years of fieldwork at the LSCE, produced by Edouard Régnier.
The afternoon opened with a talk by Andrea Piccin (Direzione Regione Lombardia) entitled “How I Met Uli”, bearing witness to Uli’s human and scientific influence well beyond the academic world. The remainder of the day was devoted to the most recent developments in the field: Inga Labuhn (LSCE) presented a study on the current isotopic composition of lacustrine biogenic carbonates; Stefan Lauterbach (GFZ Potsdam) presented the remarkable Mondsee record spanning the Late Glacial and the Holocene; Eah Opitz (CEREGE) and Mélanie Dagneaux (CEREGE) presented palaeohydrological approaches applied to mountain environments. William Rapuc (LSCE) closed the scientific presentations by tracing Uli’s intellectual journey, from the pioneering work of Dansgaard (1964) through to his own contributions.
Organizers: William Rapuc, Inga Labuhn, Edouard Réginer, Fabien Arnaud and Jérémy Jacob