Jessica Keune is a hydro-meteorologist with a specific interest in high-resolution integrated, regional climate and hydrologic modelling for an improved understanding of the hydrologic cycle and water resources. She received her Bachelor of Science in Meteorology and her Master of Science in Physics of the Earth and the Atmosphere from the University of Bonn. During her PhD, she studied the role of groundwater dynamics on land–atmosphere feedbacks as a joint research project from the University of Bonn and the Research Centre in Jülich in Germany. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University in Belgium.

Within DOWN2EARTH, Jessica is involved in the work on unraveling drivers of water availability and water scarcity in the Horn of Africa drylands. At Ghent University, she is a co-developer of the process-based Lagrangian framework, that will be used to establish links between water availability in the Horn of Africa and remote regions. Due to her experience with climate modelling, she advises on the data analyses and modelling experiments required to identify the source regions of precipitation, and helps to connect these to historical land cover change across the African continent.