22.04.2026 | WSL News
WSL researcher Liangzhi Chen has compiled a global inventory of long-lasting, large-scale droughts (see WSL New). For this work, he has been named the Swiss national champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize 2026.
The Frontiers Planet Prize honours research that drives practical, applicable solutions to prevent the over-exploitation of the Earth’s resources. The Frontiers Research Foundation (see box), based in Lausanne, has been awarding the prize since 2022. One hundred leading experts in sustainability and planetary health select 25 champions from the 70 participating countries. Three of these national champions will be chosen as ‘International Champions’ later this year and awarded one million US dollars each to accelerate and scale up the impact of their research.
Liangzhi Chen, a researcher in the WSL Ecosystem Ecology Group, has been chosen as the winner for Switzerland. He is being honoured for his research paper ‘Global increase in the occurrence and impact of multiyear droughts’, published in the journal Science. “Droughts lasting several years are no longer rare anomalies; they are an emerging feature of a warming world,” the researcher emphasises. Their impacts require sustained and coordinated actions based on Earth system research.
“By making the risk of multi-year droughts visible, measurable and comparable, my research aims to support these action. The research outcomes provide benchmarks to inform policy, guide investment and promote collaboration across borders and sectors. In this way, it helps ensure that human activities remain compatible with the resilience of the Earth system on which we all depend,” says Chen.
The Frontiers Planet Prize ceremony will take place on 18 January 2027 in Davos as part of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
About the Frontiers Research Foundation
The Frontiers Research Foundation is a not-for-profit organization based in Switzerland, which was founded by Kamila and Henry Markram, neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL). It raises funds to support programs that accelerate scientific solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet.About the Frontiers Planet Prize
The Frontiers Planet Prize is a global competition for scientists and research institutions to propose solutions to help the planet remain within the safe operating space of any one or more of the nine planetary boundaries. It was created by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022 to mobilize the global scientific community, make it complete at the highest level of excellence, and contribute to the acceleration of concrete solutions to the challenges defined by the planetary boundaries. To-date, it has drawn together hundreds of scientists, 24 national academies of science, over 730 leading universities and research institutions to compete for three prizes of 1M USD each as adjudicated by a Jury of 100 leading sustainability scientists.