Rate My Professor Stefan Rahmstorf

Stefan Rahmstorf is Co-Head of the Research Department on Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Professor of Physics of the Oceans at the University of Potsdam. A physicist and physical oceanographer by training, his research focuses on paleoclimate, ocean circulation, sea level, extreme weather events, and Earth system modeling. After postdoctoral work at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute and research at the Kiel Oceanographic Institute, he joined PIK in 1996. He has held his professorship since 2000 and has led the Earth System Analysis department since 2005. Rahmstorf earned his PhD in oceanography from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990 following studies in physics at universities in Germany and oceanography at Bangor University. He completed his habilitation at Kiel University in 1998 on the stability of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation.

Rahmstorf served as a lead author for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and as a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) from 2004 to 2013. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales/Bangor, and a member of the Academia Europaea. His awards include the Climate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union in 2017, the German Environmental Media Award in 2007, and the McDonnell Foundation Centennial Fellowship in 1999. He has published over 130 scientific papers, many in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, and co-authored books including Our Threatened Oceans and The Climate Crisis. Rahmstorf co-founded the RealClimate and KlimaLounge science blogs and contributes to public understanding of climate science through lectures and media. Professional Email: null