President

Prof. Dr. Birgit Kleinschmit

Thünen-Institut

Bundesallee 50
38116 Braunschweig

Telephone: +49 531 596 1002
Fax: +49 531 596 1099
Email: praesidentin@thuenen.de

About the person

Professor Birgit Kleinschmit from Braunschweig took over as President of the Thünen Institute on 1 February 2025. Prior to this, the forestry scientist, who holds a doctorate, worked for 22 years as Professor of Geoinformation in Environmental Planning at the Technical University (TU) of Berlin.

Birgit Kleinschmit was born in Münster/Westphalia in 1973. In 1993, she began her studies in forest science at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. She then completed her doctorate on the subject of ‘Natural forest monitoring with remote sensing methods’ and subsequently worked as a software developer. In 2003, at the age of 29, she was one of the youngest scientists to be appointed to a junior professorship and in 2011 to a university professorship in the Department of Geoinformation at TU Berlin.

As an expert, she has been advising the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) on the Scientific Advisory Board for Forest Policy since 2019 and has been its deputy chairwoman since 2023. She has been the spokesperson for several interdisciplinary research networks, is a reviewer for the German Research Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, among others, and a reviewer for various scientific journals. At TU Berlin, she was also deputy managing director of the institute and a member of the university's transfer advisory board. She was one of the 100 most important minds in science in Berlin in 2024 and was a keynote speaker at COP27 in Cairo in 2022. She also supports young female scientists as a personal mentor.

Birgit Kleinschmit is based in Braunschweig since 2006, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Professor Kleinschmit succeeds the deceased agricultural economist Prof Dr Folkhard Isermeyer.

President of the Thünen Institute since February 2025
2011-2025 University Professor and Head of the Department of Geoinformation in Environmental Planning at TU Berlin
2003-2011 Junior Professor at the Department of Geoinformation Processing in Environmental Planning at the TU Berlin
2001-2003 Software developer at INTEND Geoinformatik GmbH in Kassel
2001 Doctoral graduation (Dr. forest) at the Georg-August-University Göttingen
1998-2001 Research assistant at the Institute for Forest Management, Yield Science and Remote Sensing at the Georg-August-University Göttingen
1993-1998 Studies of forestry sciences, specialising in business management and technology, at the University of Göttingen

Elected member of the DLG General Committee since February 2025
since 2025 Member of the Council of the non-profit think tank Agora Agra
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Forest Policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture since 2019, Deputy Chairwoman since 2023
Permanent guest on the board of the German Agricultural Research Alliance (DAFA) since 2025
2024 Honoured as one of the 100 most important minds in science in Berlin
2019-2021 Member of the Transfer Advisory Board of the TU Berlin
2008-2025 Deputy Managing Director of the Institute of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at TU Berlin
2014-2024 Dean of Studies and Chairwoman of the Examination Board, TU Berlin
Since 2010 Member of the Steering Committee of the Geo.X Research Network for Geosciences in Berlin and Potsdam
2021-2024 Member of the Steering Committee of the Einstein Research Unit ‘Climate and Water under Change (CliWaC)’
2015-2024 Co-speaker of the DFG Research Training Group ‘Urban Water Interfaces’
2016-2024 Member of the Selection and Steering Committee of the Berlin International Graduate School in Model and Simulation based Research (BIMoS) at TU Berlin
2016-2020 Member of the Commission for the Award of Doctoral Scholarships of the Elsa Neumann Foundation
2012-2020 Head of the Special Interest Group ‘Analysis of remote sensing data’ of the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation
2022 Invited keynote at the conference ‘Towards UN Climate Change Conference (COP) 27 - Challenges and Actions to cope with Climate change, Water and Weather Extremes in Egypt’
Since 2015 Personal mentor for female doctoral students and postdocs
Since 2005 Reviewer for the German Research Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, German Federal Environmental Foundation, BMBF, among others
Since 2003 Reviewer for the following scientific journals, among others: IJRS, Remote Sensing of Environment, Environmental Modelling and Software, Ecological Indicators, Science of the Total Environment

Xu, Chunyan; Förster, Michael; Beckschäfer, Philip; Talkner, Ulrike; Klinck, Caroline; Kleinschmit, Birgit; Modeling European beech defoliation at a regional scale gradient in Germany from northern lowlands to central uplands using geo-ecological parameters, Sentinel-2 and National Forest Condition Survey dataForest Ecology and Management, 576; Januar 2025; Herausgeber: Elsevier; DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122383
Rocha, Alby Duarte; Vulova, Stenka; Förster, Michael; Gioli, Beniamino; Matthews, Bradley; Helfter, Carole; Meier, Fred; Steeneveld, Gert–Jan; Barlow, Janet; Järvi, Leena; Chrysoulakis, Nektarios; Nicolini, Giacomo; Kleinschmit, Brigit; Unprivileged groups are less served by green cooling services in major European urban areas, Nature Cities,6 :19; Mai 2024; Herausgeber: Springer Nature Limited; ISSN: 1476-4687 (online), 0028-0836 (print); DOI:10.14279/depositonce-22480
Sachverständigenrat für Umweltfragen (SRU); Wissenschaftlicher Beirat für Biodiversität und Genetische Ressourcen (WBBGR); Wissenschaftlicher Beirat für Waldpolitik (WBW), inkl. Kleinschmit, Birgit; Renaturierung: Biodiversität stärken, Flächen zukunftsfähig bewirtschaften; Geschäftsstelle des Sachverständigenrates für Umweltfragen (SRU); Herausgeber: Geschäftsstelle des Sachverständigenrates für Umweltfragen (SRU) Luisenstraße 46, 10117 Berlin Tel.: +49 30 263696-0 info@umweltrat.de; www.umweltrat.de; Stellungnahme; April 2024; ISBN 978-3-947370-29-0
Blickensdörfer, Lukas; Oehmichen, Katja; Pflugmacher, Dirk; Kleinschmit, Birgit; Hostert, Patrick; National tree species mapping using Sentinel-1/2 time series and German National Forest Inventory data; Remote Sensing of Environment, 304; April 2024; DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2024.114069
Li, Hanyu; Vulova, Stenka; Rocha, Alby Duarte; Kleinschmit, Birgit; Spatio-temporal feature attribution of European summer wildfires with Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI); Science of The Total Environment, 916 :170330; März 2024; Herausgeber: Elsevier; ISSN: 0048-9697; DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170330
Xu, Chunyan; Förster, Michael; Gränzig, Tobias; May, Johannes; Kleinschmit, Birgit; Relating soil moisture and Sentinel-2 vegetation index patterns to spruce bark beetle infestations prior to outbreak; Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research, 2024; Februar 2024; Herausgeber: Oxford University Press; DOI:10.1093/forestry/cpae007
Schulz, Christian; Förster, Michael; Vulova, Stenka; Rocha, Alby Duarte; Kleinschmit, Birgit; Spectral-temporal traits in Sentinel-1 C-band SAR and Sentinel-2 multispectral remote sensing time series for 61 tree species in Central Europe; Remote Sensing of Environment (RSE); 2024; DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2024.114162
Holtgrave, Ann-Kathrin; Lobert, Felix; Erasmi, Stefan; Röder, Norbert; Kleinschmit, B; Grassland mowing event detection using combined optical, SAR, and weather time series; Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 295, 1 September 2023, 113680; September 2023; Herausgeber: Elsevier; DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2023.113680
Schraml, U.; Möhring, B.; Bauhus, J.; Lang ; Seeling, U.; Farwig, N.; Hafner, A.; Kätzel, R.; Kleinschmit, B; Lindner, M.; M., Niekisch; Mehr als „Gute fachliche Praxis“ – Vorschlag für eine anpassungsfähige Governance zum Erhalt resilienter Wälder und ihrer Ökosystemleistungen in Zeiten des globalen Wandels. Stellungnahme des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats für Waldpolitik.; Berichte über Landwirtschaft-Zeitschrift für Agrarpolitik und Landwirtschaft, 235; 2023; Herausgeber: BMEL; ISSN: 2196-5099; DOI:10.12767/buel.vi235.463
Bauhus, Jürgen; Seeling, Ute; Dieter, Matthias; Farwig, Nina; Hafner, Annette; Kätzel, Ralf; Kleinschmit, Birgit; Lang, Friederike; Lindner, Marcus; Möhring, Bernhard; Die Anpassung von Wäldern und Waldwirtschaft an den Klimawandel; Berichte über Landwirtschaft-Zeitschrift für Agrarpolitik und Landwirtschaft; 2021; ISSN:2196-5099; DOI:10.12767/buel.vi233.386