CLICCS
Cluster of ExcellenceClimate, Climatic Change,
and Society (CLICCS)
and Society (CLICCS)
Wübben Foundation Student GrantSICSS master’s students honored
13 November 2025, by Franziska Neigenfind
Photo: private
Katherine Linscott (left) und Clara Harms
For the second half of their master’s degree studies, Clara Harms and Katherine Linscott will receive financial support from the Wübben Foundation. In recognition of their outstanding achievements in the interdisciplinary degree program Integrated Climate System Sciences at the graduate school SICSS and their contributions in the area of climate futures, the two students will each receive a monthly grant of 1,000 euros for the next year.
How can we ensure a good future without overextending ourselves? How can climate protection be made fair? Environmental physicist Clara Harms is especially interested in the practical applicability of climate research and in interfaces between the natural climate system and society. Through her research, she hopes to help expand our knowledge base and drive on the social transformation processes that are vital for effective climate protection and climate-change adaptation.
Canadian-born Katherine Linscott also intensively deals with these topics in her work: can nations like her home country, whose economies are heavily dependent on oil, achieve a fair transition away from fossil fuels – without massively jeopardizing their own prosperity? Katherine has investigated strategies for financing such transformations, mobilizing public support, and expanding into potential alternative markets, which many of these countries could switch to. She finds the challenge of turning complex issues into concrete measures and developing potential solutions particularly motivating.
“I’m delighted for Clara and Katherine and congratulate them on this great success. I’ve come to know both of them as committed, bright young minds with the ability to approach problems holistically,” says CLICCS Speaker Prof. Johanna Baehr. “With this financial backing, they can now concentrate even more on their studies and their theses on key future-relevant questions. I’m anxious to see what they come up with and very much look forward to our continuing collaboration.”
