ICARUS: Smarter Adaptation to Heat and Climate Change

Excessive heat is becoming a growing public health threat. Each year, heatwaves and harmful sun exposure cause illness and even death, while our collective behaviours continue to fuel climate change, raising the risks further.

The ancient Greek myth about Icarus describes how he ignored advising and died because he came to close to the sun. Image generated by Chat GPT 5.

The ICARUS project—funded by a DKK 15 million Novo Nordisk Synergy grant—brings together experts in physiology, psychology, medicine, and behavioural science to better understand and reduce these risks.

My PhD student, MSc Elisabeth Glunz, is designing different psychological surveys, including an experience sampling paradigm, to study the cognitive, emotional, and cultural aspects of resilience to extreme heat—and, in turn, how this impacts people's perceptions of climate change. This will be studied both in the lab, under controlled heat and UV exposure, as well as in the field, with UV exposure, activity levels, and heart rate measured using sensing devices.

I lead the development of machine learning models that turn vast amounts of physiological, behavioural, and psychological data into personalised heat protection strategies. The algorithms aim to:

• Model heat-related behaviour and risk-taking

• Generate personalised alerts and advice via a mobile app

• Adapt recommendations to individuals’ physiology, habits, and psychological profiles

• Support climate policy by informing resilience strategies at scale

By combining human data with AI, this work aims not only to keep individuals safer during heat waves but also to inspire smarter, evidence-based approaches to tackling climate change.

Read more here.

Hiring

I will be hiring a post-doc in 2026 to assist with combining data sources and predictive modelling.