Valerio Schelbert

Valerio joined the SDSC in 2026 as a PhD Student in the Research team, based in Zurich.
Valerio holds an MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich, where his work centered on computer vision and machine learning. For his Master's thesis at the EcoVision Lab (University of Zurich), he developed a deep learning framework that fuses webcam imagery with meteorological data to forecast tree phenology, combining a vision foundation model with a temporal transformer via cross-attention. At the SDSC, Valerio works on the SNSF-funded THIRST project on intelligent, spatiotemporal avalanche forecasting, under the co-supervision of Michele Volpi and Prof. Johan Gaume (ETH Zurich), in collaboration with the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF). His research develops machine learning models that integrate physics and heterogeneous observations to support expert avalanche forecasters. As an avid ski tourer, J+S mountaineering guide and volunteer with Alpine Rescue Switzerland, he brings first-hand knowledge of alpine terrain to the work.