sébastien castelltort
vice-rector
Research & Sustainability
Research and Grants Office (RGO), Technology and Skills Transfer office (UNITEC) and innovation, University Commission for Ethical Research (CUREG), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (ISPSO), Open Science, SDG Office, Initiative Zéro Emissions 2050Today, Animal Research Office (DEA)
Holder of a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Rennes in 2003, Sébastien Castelltort started his research career at ETH Zurich before becoming Associate Professor in tectonics and sedimentology at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France (now Sorbonne Université) from 2005 to 2007. He then returned to Switzerland, where he continued his research in earth surface dynamics at ETH Zurich for four years before joining the Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva in 2011. Appointed as Associate Professor in comparative sedimentology and earth surface processes in the Department of Earth Sciences, he assumed the role of Department chair from 2019 to 2022. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2021 and Head of the Section of Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2023.
Through grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Commission among others, his research group has revealed the historical consequences of past global warming episodes on our planet, examining their impact on rainfall patterns and terrestrial and marine ecosystems. His studies have taken him to investigate marine sediments in the Gulf of Mexico, Ladakh Himalaya, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan, the dried riverbeds of the Sahara and Mars, pebbles in the conglomerates of the Swiss Alps and Spanish Pyrenees, and river networks in the southern Alps of New Zealand.
His findings include evidence of Earth's climate upheavals during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a significant global warming that occurred 56 million years ago, as well as population movements along the Nile shores, prompted by changes in flood regimes 10,000 years ago. Castelltort is also active in the promotion of Science to the general public and in particular to school pupils with the Terrascope in the Scienscope of the Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva, and the SNSF Agora-funded ClimatiZENs project (Climats du passé pour citoyen-nes de demain), among other actions. He has been appointed vice-Rector as of 1 April 2024.
Secretariat:
Maryline Primus-Langel
Uni Dufour - Office 249
24, rue du Général-Dufour
CH-1211 Geneva 4
+41 22 379 71 26
Members of the Rectorate are available by appointment only