Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC)
Director of the Department of Biogeochemical Integration
Contact: Prof. Dr Markus Reichstein

Markus Reichstein is Director of the Department of Biogeochemical Integration at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. He studied ecology with minors in botany, chemistry and computer science and completed his doctorate in plant ecology at the University of Bayreuth. Since 2013, Markus Reichstein has been Professor of Global Geoecology at FSU Jena and founding director of the Michael Stifel Centre Jena for Data-Driven and Simulation Sciences. He is a Fellow in the Network of Excellence ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems) and Founding Director of the ELLIS Unit Jena. He was lead author of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Extremes (SREX), a member of the German Future Earth Committee on Sustainability Research and the Thuringian Climate Council. Recent honours include the Piers J. Sellers Mid-Career Award of the American Geophysical Union (2018), an ERC Synergy Grant (2019) and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2020). His research focuses on the response and feedback of ecosystems to climate variability from an Earth system perspective and in particular on the interplay of climate extremes with the resilience of ecosystems and societies. Methodologically, he uses a combination of artificial intelligence and system modelling approaches.