Prof. Dr. Gerd Michelsen

Prof. Dr. Gerd Michelsen was the first holder of the UNESCO Chair in Higher Education for Sustainable Development at Leuphana University Lüneburg, which he held from 2005 to 2021. He played a key role in developing Leuphana into a sustainable university and has been Senior Professor of Sustainability Research at Leuphana since 2013.

His work centres on sustainable development, (higher) education for sustainable development and sustainability communication. After his appointment as Professor of Ecology at the University of Lüneburg in 1993/94, he was Professor of Environmental and Sustainability Communication and head of the Institute for Environmental Communication from 1995 to 2013. From 2004 to 2006 he served as the university’s Vice President for Teaching and Research. Research stays took him to the University of Nottingham (2011) and, as visiting professor, to the University of Latvia in Riga (2019).

Gerd Michelsen studied economics at the Universities of Kiel and Freiburg. From 1977 to 1979 he co-founded the Öko-Institut in Freiburg and was its first managing director. He received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg in 1979 and his habilitation from the University of Hanover in 1987, where he headed the Central Centre for Continuing Education until 1993.