Alumnus (former Member)

Christoph Schneider became Vice President for Research at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2021. Before that, he was head of the section Climate-Geography at the Department of Geography of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin since October 2015. Before, from 2004 to 2015, he was professor in Physical Geography and Climatology at RWTH Aachen University and partly managing director of the Department of Geography at RWTH Aachen. From 2009 to 2014 he further served as Dean of Study Affairs for the Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering of RWTH Aachen University. He received his first degree in geography and physics at the University of Freiburg in 1993. His PhD research in geography at the same university from 1994 to 1998 was on RADAR remote sensing of glaciers related to climate change along the Antarctic Peninsula. The habilitation thesis also at Freiburg University covered work carried out between 1999 and 2004 on climate and climate change impacts on glaciers of southwest Patagonia in Chile. Later he run various projects on climate change impacts on the snow cover in German low mountain ranges, on glaciers in Svalbard, Tibet and Central Asia including Tibet, Tien Shan and Qilian Shan as well as projects related to urban climate and air quality in Aachen and other locations. Christoph Schneider is member of the German working group on Climatology within the German Society of Geography in which he served as spokesman from 2008 to 2011. Since 2016 he is elected member of the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) review board for Physical Geography.
Christoph Schneider is a member of IRI THESys since April 2016.

Research Interests

  • Climate and climate change impacts on the cryosphere
  • Urban climate and air quality
  • Atmospheric teleconnections related to polar and sub-polar climates