Reinhard F. Hüttl - Biography#

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Reinhard Hüttl is Scientific Director and Managing Partner of EEI European Energy Innovation GmbH in Berlin. From 2007 to 2021 he was Scientific Executive Director and Chairman of the Board at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). From 2008 to 2017 he was the President of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and since 2017 he has been its Vice president.

Reinhard Hüttl studied Forest and Soil Sciences at the Albert-Ludwigs-University (ALU), Freiburg, Germany and at the Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA and hold the Chair of Soil Protection and Recultivation at the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus-Senftenberg from 1993 to 2021.

Before joining the BTU, Reinhard Hüttl was Assistant Professor in Geobotany at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, USA and, prior to that, Head of the International Research Department at the mining company “Kali und Salz AG” in the BASF Group in Kassel (1986 to 1992).

Reinhard Hüttl also held several advisory positions. From 1995 to 2000 he was member of the German Government’s Council of Experts for Environmental Questions, and from 2000 to 2006 both member and chairman of the German Government’s Scientific Commission of the Science Council. He was also member of the German Government’s Ethics Commission on the Safe and Secure Provision of Energy which was established in March 2011 and presented its final conclusions in July 2011. He is currently member of the Scientific Advisory Board on Forest Policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Reinhard Hüttl was also Chairman of Euro-CASE from May 2013 to June 2021 and is presently member of the Executive Committee.

He is member of a number of national and international Academies including the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. Reinhard Hüttl received an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna in 2004 and was conferred with the Cross of Merit, First Class of the Federal Republic of Germany in July 2008.