is currently a doctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) in Potsdam and a student at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität Berlin (FUB). She earned her degree in Microbiology and Genetic Engineering from the University of Chemical Technology in Prague in 2021.

Since 2022, she has been involved in the ENVIRE project (https://www.envire-project.de), which focuses on antimicrobial resistance in broiler farms. This interdisciplinary research bridges environmental, animal, and human health. The project includes various intervention studies, such as antibiotic-free poultry farming, the use of phytotherapy as an alternative to antibiotics, and methods for the treatment and storage of manure.

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 “Digitalisation 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.

Pre-Readings:

• Matthess, M.; Kunkel, S.; Dachrodt, M. F.; Beier, G.: The impact of digitalization on energy intensity in manufacturing sectors – A panel data analysis for Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 397, 136598. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136598. Link


• Kopp, T., Nabernegg, M., & Lange, S. (2023). The net climate effect of digitalization, differentiating between firms and households. Energy Economics, 126, 106941. DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106941. Link


• Ullrich, A.; Reißig, M.; Niehoff, S.; Beier, G. (2023): Employee involvement and participation in digital transformation: A combined analysis of literature and practitioners’ expertise. Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 36, issue 8. Doi: 10.1108/JOCM-10-2022-0302. Link

is the Technical Officer (Science for Food Systems) at the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, leading the work on thought leadership and science-policy interface. She was the inaugural Klaus Töpfer Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies for Sustainability (now RIFS) in Potsdam, Germany, and founder of Women Leaders for Planetary Health. In 2021, she published the book “Breaking the Silos for Planetary Health: A Roadmap for a Resilient Post-Pandemic World”. She is also an advisor to the World Health Organization- South-East Asia Regional Expert Group on Environment Determinants of Health and Climate Change and one of the Scientific Commissioners of The Lancet Pathfinder Commission on decabornization.

Pre-Readings:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/home

https://planetaryhealthalliance.org/research-resources/

Breaking the Silos for Planetary Health

is an agronomist specializing in the sustainability of integrated crop-forestry-livestock systems. At the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), he manages the Living Lab within the EU-funded Climate Farm Demo project, promoting climate-smart innovations in agriculture in collaboration with the Leibniz “InnoHof”, and supports the coordination of ERA-NET projects such as MilKey, MELS, and DairyMix, which focus on modeling multicriteria sustainability and reducing environmental impacts in livestock farming. Federico’s research focuses on sustainability, nutrient circularity and diversification of farming systems. His work strongly aligns with the One Health approach, which recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health—an interconnection increasingly shaped by climate change.

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.

Pre-Readings:

1) How the WASCAL Floating University is embedded into the bigger picture of long-term and sustained capacity sharing: Fiedler B. et al. 2025. 20 years of partnership in marine sciences between Cabo Verde and Germany: From ideas opportunities and observations to long-term and sustained capacity sharing. Oceanography 38(1):49–53,  https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2025.127

2) Video about the first WASCAL Floating University in 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYQXMiVu8Wc

3) Audio impressions of the last, third edition of the WASCAL Floating University in 2025: https://wellenbrecherpodcast.podigee.io/9-folge or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRxbJyxUYO4

is a computer scientist and philosopher in the “Data, Algorithmic Systems, and Ethics” research group at the Weizenbaum Institute and Technische Universität Berlin. In his PhD research, he explores algorithmic fairness from both technical and philosophical perspectives, with a focus on socio-technical evaluations of machine learning systems. He develops auditing methods for models that are not fully accessible, such as AI-driven content moderation systems, which often risk over- or under-moderating speech from marginalized groups.

is a microbiologist with a background in molecular biology and molecular microbiology. He earned his Master’s degree from the University of Graz, Austria, where he built a strong foundation in microbial genetics, molecular biology, and host-microbe interactions. Since 2022, he has been a doctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) in Potsdam, Germany. His research focuses on the structure and function of soil- and plant-associated microbiomes in response to environmental change. Currently, Daniel investigates the impact of artificial humic acid on soil microbial communities, aiming to understand how that carbon-rich compounds influence microbial diversity, composition, and function. He also studies the seed microbiome and microbial inheritance in plants, examining how the environmental factors and parental transmission shape the plant-associated microbiome. His interdisciplinary work contributes to a broader understanding of how soil health and plant fitness can be enhanced under climate change scenarios.

Pre-Readings:

• From seed to seed: the role of microbial inheritance in the assembly of the plant microbiome (https://www.cell.com/trends/microbiology/fulltext/S0966-842X(22)00292-X)


• Artificial humic acid diminishes the effect of drought on the soil microbiome (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sae2.70034)


• Oak seedling microbiome assembly under climate warming and drought (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40793-024-00602-4)

is a full professor of the University of Potsdam in the Computer Science faculty and she is the head of the data science department of the Leibniz-Institution for Agriculture and Bioeconomy, including the research group Understandable Machine Intelligence (UMI lab). She received her masters degree in Technomathematics from the Technical University of Berlin in 2012. Afterwards she worked as a researcher at Ottobock in Vienna, Austria, on time series data and domain adaptation for controlling prosthetic devices. In 2014 she started her PhD on explainable AI and received the Dr. rer. nat. degree from the Technical University of Berlin in 2017. After one year maternal leave, she continued working at the machine learning chair at TU Berlin as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2020 she started her own research group UMI Lab dealing with explainable artificial intelligence at the Technical University of Berlin. From 2021-2023 she had a secondary employment as Associate Professor at the Arctic University of Norway. Furthermore, she is a member of the Berlin Institute for Foundations of Learning and Data (BIFOLD), and of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) Society.

is graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Blumenau – FURB (2017). She holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the same university (2019) and a specialization in Food Safety Management from the SENAC/SP University Center (2019). She worked in the food industry for two years and as a researcher engineer and adjunct professor at the University of Blumenau (FURB), conducting research in the areas of food preservation, refrigeration systems, and technological packaging. Currently, she is a PhD researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and scientist and PhD representative at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy e.V. (ATB) in the Department of Process Engineering of Systems. She is also a committee member of the Young Professionals Network of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Pre-Reading:

https://potsdam-summerschool.org/wpcontent/uploads/2025/06/Hoffmann-et-al-2025-Heat-transfer-in-large-bins-during-the-apples-cool-down-process.pdf

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.

Abstract of the Session

List of Suggested Readings

The following works, some of which directly referenced in my presentation, are essential readings for this topic:

Basic Readings:

• 
  
  
  
  • Global Inequality Project: Responsibility for Climate Breakdown.
  
  
  • Transnational Resource and Action Center. “Greenhouse Gangsters vs. Climate Justice” (1999).
  
  
  • Grove, Jairus Victor. Introduction to Savage Ecology: War and Geopolitics at the End of the World (2019).
  
  
  •  Jurema, B., & König, E. (2024). State Power and Capital in the Climate Crisis: A Theory of Fossil Imperialism. In F. Sultana (Ed.), Confronting Climate Coloniality (pp. 62-77). London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003465973.
  
  
  • The Principles of Environmental Justice (1991)
  
  
  • Bali Principles of Climate Justice (2002)
  
  
  
  

Further Readings:

• On Environmental Justice & Ecological Conflicts:
  
  
  
  • Martinez-Alier, Joan. The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (2002)
  
  
  • Malm, Andreas & Carton, Wim. Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown (2024).
  
  
  
  

• On Colonial Roots of Climate Crisis & Inequality:

• 
  
  
  
  • Brand, Ulrich, and Markus Wissen. The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism (2021).
  
  
  • Parsons, Laurie. Carbon colonialism: How rich countries export climate breakdown (2023).
  
  
  • Ghosh, Amitav. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (2021).
  
  
  • Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World (2001).
  
  
  
  

• On Deficient Decolonization & Pathways to Justice (Reparations, Worldmaking, Coloniality):
  
  
  
  • Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi O. Reconsidering Reparations (2022).
  
  
  • Getachew, Adom. Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (2024).
  
  
  • Prashad, Vijay. The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (2013).
  
  
  • Mitchell, Timothy. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil (2011).
  
  
  
  

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.

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.

Abstract of this Session

https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/output/dossiers/marineplastic

is an economist specializing in technologies and innovations in the areas of food and agriculture. Since 2019, he has worked as a scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy , a pioneer and driver of bioeconomy research in Europe. He has rich experience coordinating catalytic, high impact European projects focused on sustainability and system transformation. His work has involved supporting the development of new businesses in rural areas, implementing crop diversification strategies and scaling up innovative bio based solutions. He currently coordinates the DCropS4OneHealth project, a German funded project which aims, inter alia, to identify causal relationships between agrobiodiversity and the health of people, animals and ecosystems (One Health). Rooted in the belief that science should serve society, his motivation is to bridge research, business and policy by translating scientific findings into actionable strategies which foster resilient, inclusive, and sustainable futures.

Pre-Reading:

• https://potsdam-summer-school.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/OROZCO_Ross-2024.pdf

is a student assistant in the research group “Data, Algorithmic Systems and Ethics” and a core researcher of the “Data Workers’ Inquiry” project at the Weizenbaum Institute. He holds a Double-Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from the University College Maastricht, and is studying philosophy of technology in his master’s program at the Technische Universität Berlin. His interests revolve around Philosophy of AI, Marxist Theory and infrastructural studies of sociotechnical systems.

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.

is a microbiologist specialized in microorganisms found in agro-ecosystems. Lena holds a Master’s degree in environmental microbiology from the University of Montpellier (France) and completed her PhD with the French Institute for Agronomy and Environment (INRAE).

Her research focuses on the effects on diverse agricultural practices on the crop microbiome, with the goal of improving plant, human and environmental health through sustainable practices. She joined the ATB in 2024 as a postdoc scientist in the DcropS4One Health project to investigate the impact of crop diversification on plant and field produce microbiome.

She has specific interest in critical thinking, bringing science to the public, and supporting open and fair practices in science.

Pre-Readings:

• Diversifying crop rotation increases food production, reduces net greenhouse gas emissions and improves soil health | Nature Communications


• Legacies at work: plant–soil–microbiome interactions underpinning agricultural sustainability: Trends in Plant Science

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.

is trained as a chemist (PhD in inorganic chemistry and crystallography, University of Freiburg, 2000). In his activities over a span of 30 years he has combined science, civil society, politics and economic issues. Until 2018, he was executive director of a non-governmental organization. In this function, he introduced the concept of equitable licensing to technology transfer in German publicly funded research. He headed interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects; therefore, he is familiar with the mode of operation of politics and media as well as university administration and European legislation. During his time as a student, he hosted a radio program on environmental topics. Later he became editor-in-chief of a consumer magazine for evidence-based medicine.

Christian is responsible for promoting the cooperation of researchers from Kiel Marine Science (KMS) at Kiel University with experts from politics, civil society and business. The goal is participatory development of research questions. To support the exchange between science and society, he organizes the “Kieler Marktplatz”, an established series of events organized in cooperation with the Maritime Cluster Northern Germany, the Future Ocean Network and the Wissenschaftszentrum Kiel. He is responsible for maintaining exchange with NGOs and for drafting participatory projects, e.g. living labs.

Pre-Reading:

• Rombach, S., Wagner-Ahlfs, C., Riekhof, M.-C., & Oppelt, N. (2024). “Transdisciplinary Research in Marine Science: What’s the added value of involving stakeholders?” Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science, 15.


• https://doi.org/10.22545/2024/00257

brings a background in organization development, constructivist education, and the listening arts to her transdisciplinary research and practice. She is committed to building societal capacity for ethical group facilitation, recognizing that learning to engage creatively with difference helps resist “divide and conquer” dynamics.In the evolving field of artificial intelligence, she invites strong public dialogue on the risks of extractive development, and explores the potential for responsible collaboration with large language models to deepen human learning.