On the road as a scout in science

The Henriette Herz Scouting Program was first launched by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation three years ago. In the current year, 18 scientists were selected as scouts, one of them being Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger. As head of the Department of Socio-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems at the Universities of Kassel and Göttingen, he now has the opportunity to select three excellent young scientists whose doctorates date back no more than twelve years and recruit them for his research team. Among them should be at least one woman. The selected international research fellows will ultimately receive a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for up to two years.

"The main criteria in my search for suitable candidates will be scientific excellence, experience in research on social-ecological systems, and personal motivation," Plieninger emphasizes. Candidates should "generally have expertise in agriculture, forestry, geography, environmental planning or other areas of environmental science," Plieninger adds.

Tobias Plieninger is a sustainability scientist with an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary focus at the interface of ecology and social issues. In particular, he researches the transformation of rural landscapes, ecosystem services and sustainable transformations. He is particularly interested in the complex relationships between agriculture, forestry, conservation, and other natural resource management sectors.

Since 2017, he has led the field of social-ecological interactions in agricultural systems. From 2013 to 2017, Plieninger was Associate Professor at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen. Previously, he led a junior research group on "Ecosystem Services in Cultivated Landscapes" at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, funded through the BMBF priority area of social-ecological research. He studied forestry at the Universities of Freiburg and Göttingen, received his PhD in landscape management from the University of Freiburg, and habilitated in landscape ecology at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger
University of Kassel
Department 11 Ecological Agricultural Sciences
Tel.: 05542-981249
Mail.: plieninger@uni-kassel.de