studied mechanical engineering at Technical University of Ilmenau (Germany), with semesters abroad in Russia (ITMO, St. Petersburg) and Brazil (UFSC, Florianopolis). In 2006 he joined Fraunhofer IPK as a research assistant, where he worked on a number of research and industry projects in the area of Virtual Product Creation. He obtained his PhD in engineering from TU Berlin in January 2014, with a distinction for his work on the usage of traceability data in systems engineering. Grischa Beier joined RIFS in September 2014 where he acts as the leader of the research group on "Digitalization and Sustainability Transformations". He explores the social and ecological effects of future digitalised and networked industrial production. In July 2023, he was appointed professor for Sustainability in Digitalisation at the University of Potsdam.

is an education and scientific coordinator within the Cabo Verde cooperation group at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Alongside with a team from the local Universidade Técnica do Atlântico (UTA) in Mindelo, he organizes and co-leads the at-sea training called “Floating University” within the Master Research Program „Climate Change and Marine Sciences“ as part of the larger West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land-Use (WASCAL) program.
His experiences as a sea-going chemical oceanographer, his research interest in observing the marine carbon and oxygen cycle, his knowledge in science communication from his two-year traineeship (“Volontariat”) as well as his curiosity for the coast and ocean – it is all required to support this cross-cultural, multinational knowledge exchange and academic education programme, training the future generation of early career ocean professionals in West Africa.

is a political scientist from Recife, Brazil. He joined the RIFS-Potsdam in 2021 as Research Associate for the Democratic Governance for Ecopolitical Transformations (Ecopol) project, which analyzes the dynamics of sustainability governance. His research interests include US foreign policy, critical security studies, transdisciplinary research, environmental justice, and the intersection of geopolitics and ecopolitics, with the Amazon Basin as case study. He has worked at international organizations and think tanks in Europe and Latin America. He graduated in Social Sciences at the Federal University of Pernambuco, holds an MSc in comparative politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD degree in political science from the Freie Universität Berlin.

is scientific director at RIFS, the Research Institute for Sustainability at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (formerly IASS). He addresses the Anthropocene in an integrative manner, bringing together a wide range of academic expertise in his team and involving societal actors in a transdisciplinary research approach.

His main transformative research topics include air pollution, climate change, climate geoengineering, environment-related governance of vulnerable regions like the Himalayas, the Arctic and the ocean, and the sustainability-oriented interfaces between the sciences and other key knowledge-holder communities such as the arts, religions and indigenous peoples.

He also actively supports whole person development as a component of sustainability, including exploring the common ground between personal transformations and systemic transformations, as well as the mindsets needed to bring these into harmony.

is Press Relations Manager at RIFS since 2019. Previously, she was press officer for the Lifesciences department at the TU Munich (environment, nutrition, agriculture), editor-in-chief of Lifeline, the health portal of Funke Mediengruppe, editor-in-chief of Utopia.de, the community for sustainability, and editor of various media such as "Die Welt" and "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ). She learned her profession at the journalism school of Axel Springer Media Group as well as at the daily newspapers SZ and "Die Rheinpfalz".

joined the RIFS in 2012 and leads the group "Climate Action in National and International Processes (ClimAct)." ClimAct focuses on participation in and understanding of political forums that aim to drive climate action, with a particular emphasis on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC).

Kathleen holds a Ph.D. in atmospheric chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and worked at the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) prior to joining the RIFS. This perspective - combining scientific expertise with practical experience in the world of policy and administration - shapes her approach to both research and policy-oriented work.

leads the Ocean Governance Research Group at RIFS since September 2022. Trained as a geographer, she has specialized human-environment interactions, sustainable development and (environmental) governance of coastal and marine areas. Her research interest is in understanding how governance processes can be designed and supported in such a way that they foster sustainable approaches and provide responses to the challenges ahead. She employs transdisciplinary and transformative research approaches and focuses particularly on the interface of science, policy/administration, and civil society. Barbara was a research associate at the Chair of Physical Geography and Environmental Research at Saarland University, Germany, from 1997 to 2010 and received her PhD in 2002. From 2010 to 2017, she was a member of the Cluster of Excellence "The Future Ocean" in Kiel and employed as a research associate in the working group Coastal Risks and Sea Level Rise at the Institute of Geography at Kiel University. Here she researched and taught on climate change, sea-level rise impacts, and sustainability and governance of coastal areas. She joined the RIFS (formerly the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, IASS) in 2017.

is an anthropologist (PhD), artist, and facilitator. She creates contact zones between species, disciplines, and institutions. Those include minature bars for extinct insects (with Katrin Petroschkat), hacked audio guides for Natural History Museums (with choreographer Laurie Young), nail salons that raise questions about touch between species (Haptic Hortus, 2022), and excursions into millinery and its environmental histories, read through AI-powered species recognition apps ("To be of Service. Speculative millinery's tiny worlds of consequence, 2023). As a facilitator, she loves running barcamps and facilitates transdisciplinary collaborations (which she also teaches at unviversity level, e.g. at TU Munich).

Susanne was Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS)/Helmholtz Center Potsdam in 2022 and 2023 and is now head of STEAM projects at the Museum für Naturkunde Bayern with BIOTOPIA Lab in Munich. www.susanneschmitt.org

joined the RIFS communications department in June 2014. She studied philosophy at the University of Hamburg (M.A.) and literature at Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D.). She trained as a journalist at the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung and has worked as a program manager at the International Center for Journalism at Freie Universität Berlin and as a freelance journalist for the taz, Deutsche Welle and the magazine of the Leibniz Association.

studied politics and communications. He has worked as a journalist, was deputy press spokesman for the Green Party parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and, most recently, press spokesman for the Berlin Senate Administration for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection. Matthias joined RIFS in in November 2018, where he heads the institute's Press & Communications unit. He is particularly fascinated by the institute's focus on co-creating transformative knowledge for a sustainable future.

is a facilitator, evaluator, trainer, and coach dedicated to driving social change. She cultivates leadership, social entrepreneurship, and systems innovation, working with companies, UN agencies, NGOs, and social movements to foster meaningful transformation.
With over 20 years of experience across Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America, Malika has worked as a facilitator, systems scientist, and sustainability practitioner. Her work focuses on advancing inclusive business models, sustainable production and trade, nature-based solutions, climate adaptation, and the rights of communities and Indigenous peoples.
A prolific writer on systems transformation, Malika has contributed extensively to the field, sharing insights on how to create just and regenerative futures.