What happens if a storm surge and river flood meet at the coast? What if a drought and heatwave coincide? Such events are commonly referred to as compound extremes. And although the societal and environmental impacts can be devastating they are not very well understood and often ignored by scientists and engineers when analyzing climate risks or designing infrastructure. In order to fill this knowledge gap the World Climate Research Program invited 30 scientists and engineers from around the globe to attend a workshop in Zurich, Switzerland. For 3 days they discussed how to document, understand, simulate, and attribute those rare, yet dangerous events and how to make society more resilient against them. It was the first internationally coordinated initiative whose outcome will likely shape the direction of this young research field over the coming years. Dr. Wahl, who joined UCF in January this year and is known for his research on compound flooding along the U.S. coast, was one of the attendees and also invited by the organizers to deliver a keynote presentation.