Coral Salvador selected for EMS Tromp Award 2026

The recipient of the EMS Tromp Award for outstanding achievement in biometeorology 2026 is Coral Salvador of the Climate Epidemiology and Public Health research group, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), at the University of Bern. She is awarded for the publication on “Analyzing the effects of drought at different time scales on cause-specific mortality in South Africa” by C. Salvador; R.Nieto; T.Kapwata; C. Y.Wright; C.Reason; L.Gimeno; A.M.Vicedo-Cabrera, published in April 2024 in Environmental Research Letters.

Investigating the link between different types of droughts and cause-specific mortality in South Africa, Coral Salvador and her colleagues demonstrate that prolonged droughts significantly increase mortality risks, with respiratory deaths showing the strongest connection. The study sheds light on how age and drought duration influence population vulnerability, filling a critical gap in human health research.

The award will be presented to her at the Awards session on Monday, 7 September 2026. Coral Salvador will present her awarded paper on Wednesday, 9 September at 9:00am in session OSA2.4 on Human Biometeorology.

About Coral Salvador and her work

Coral Salvador, recipient of the EMS Tromp Award for outstanding achievement in biometeorology 20206 (photo private)
Coral Salvador (photo private)

Dr. Coral Salvador is a Senior Research Assistant at the University of Bern, working within the interdisciplinary Climate Epidemiology and Public Health (CEPH) research group at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), associated with the Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research. Her research develops along the intersection between environmental epidemiology, public health, climate sciences, and sociology of health, with a strong interest in developing interdisciplinary research on the impacts of extreme weather events (particularly but not limited to droughts) on human health in the context of climate change, and the identification of vulnerability profiles. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary and innovative project, “IGIA-SETH: Unraveling the impacts of droughts on human health”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione programme.

She completed her PhD at the University of Vigo (2018-2020) and the National School of Health, Institute of Health Carlos III in Madrid, Spain. Her international PhD research on drought-related health effects in the Iberian Peninsula was pioneering in Europe and awarded cum laude and an extraordinary doctoral prize, resulting in international recognition, including the Tromp Foundation Travel Award in 2018.
After completing her PhD, she held a competitive postdoctoral fellowship from the Xunta of Galicia, Spain, and joined the CEPH (2022-2023) as an external researcher. Her postdoc research focused on identifying inequalities in the effects of weather-related events on human health among vulnerable populations. She returned to the University of Vigo with another highly competitive postdoctoral fellowship (2024-2025).

Dr. Coral Salvador has led and contributed to significant epidemiological studies focused on drought-related health impacts and was invited to contribute to the Annual Review of Public Health with a comprehensive review on the topic. Her research also spans other extreme weather events and health outcomes, with a particular focus on vulnerable populations (e.g., pregnant women, older adults), integrating gender, socioeconomic, and demographic vulnerability dimensions, along with methodological contributions.

Coral Salvador has established strong collaborations across Europe, North America, Brazil, and South Africa, and maintains active participation with international research groups and networks, including the Ibero- American Women for Climate and Health Research, IBWoClimA, collaboration with the Multi- Country Multi-City (MCC) collaborative research network, and FutureMed Cost Action. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences, and she regularly contributes to outreach activities. Furthermore, she has participated in several research projects and is co-coordinating WG1 of the international COST Action FutureMed: A transdisciplinary network to bridge climate science and impacts on health, where she is also a member of the Grant Committee. She has also served as editor for a special issue on droughts and health and actively contributes to the supervision of early-career researchers. She is deeply committed to research and aims to increase her scientific expertise through the expansion of her research network with new collaborations with experts in different areas to address pressing challenges related to climate change effects, breaking barriers between disciplines.

More information on Coral Salvador and her work

Travel awards for Early Career Scientists in biometeorology

In addition, six young scientists have been awarded the Tromp Foundation Travel Award to Young Scientists (TFTAYS), providing a free registration and travel funds to present their work in the field of biometeorology at the EMS Annual Meeting in Utrecht.

  • Emma Holmberg, Switzerland, will give a presentation on Forecasting European temperature-related mortality in Summer 2024: data-driven vs physics-based forecast approaches
  • Konrad Chmist, Poland, will give a presentation on Long-term variability of bioclimatic conditions in the coastal part of north-eastern Labrador from the late 19th to the mid-20th century
  • José Ángel Callejas Rodelas, Germany, will give a presentation on Carbon dioxide and water vapour balance of different management regimes in an olive orchard in SE Spain using conventional and lower-cost eddy covariance measurements
  • Giorgos Alexandrou, Cyprus, will give a presentation on Quantifying the Cooling Effects of Urban Trees on Pedestrian Heat Stress in a Dense Mediterranean Urban Environment
  • Carla Mateus, Ireland, will give a presentation on Changes in heat waves in Ireland
  • Zala Žnidaršič, Slovenia, will give a presentation on Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum) in a Warming Climate: Key Agroclimatic Indicators Shaping Yield Variability in Slovenia

More details on session and presentation times will become available mid-June.

graphic announcing Coral Salvador as recipient of the EMS Tromp Award for outstanding achievement in biometeorology 2026, including a citation (photo private)


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