Stefan Rahmstorf

After studying physics at the Universities of Ulm and Konstanz and physical oceanography at the University of Wales (Bangor), Stefan Rahmstorf completed a thesis on general relativity theory.

He then moved to New Zealand and obtained his PhD in oceanography at Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, which involved a number of research cruises in the South Pacific. He continued his research at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel, and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His work focuses on the role of ocean currents in climate change. In 1999, he received a US$-1m fellowship award from the USbased James S. McDonnell Foundation. He has been teaching physics of the oceans as a professor at Potsdam University since 2000.

Rahmstorf is a member of the NOAA Panel on Abrupt Climate Change and of the advisory board on sustainable development of the state of Baden-Württemberg.