Profile of Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

How Hans Joachim (“John”) Schellnhuber became one of the world's leading experts in climate change is somewhat ironic. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he worked in an area famous for its eternal summer. Unlike most places on the continent, which swing from icy winters to sweltering summers, the southern California city is known for its near-perfect, virtually unchanging climate. At Santa Barbara, he chose to pursue research in chaos theory, a decision that set him on the path to his current posts as scientific advisor to the German chancellor and director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, Potsdam, Germany).

The pressure Schellnhuber put on himself to succeed armored him against Santa Barbara's seductions, however. At the ITP, he pored over his calculations, trying to keep pace with five current and future Nobel laureates, whose offices were just across the hall. He recalls this period with a hint of regret. “There was no time for going to the beach and windsurfing,” he says. “On the one hand, it's a lovely landscape. On the other hand, if you do theoretical physics, you cannot take much notice. Sometimes it's better if you live in a dreary place.” He insists that his current campus in Potsdam is “stunning and beautiful and full of reminiscences of great minds” like Einstein. Still, it has no palm trees.

Schellnhuber has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Regensburg (Regensburg, Germany) and has done fundamental work on quantum mechanics and nonlinear dynamics, yet he has also served as professor and director of the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, which focuses on tidal flat research. His scientific background has prepared …