I hold a Chair for Environmental/Resource Economics and Sustainability at the Ruhr University Bochum and a researcher at RWI - Leibniz-Institute for Economic Research. I studied economics in Nuremberg and completed my doctorate in Mannheim. Before moving to the Ruhr region, I held professorships at the University of Münster and the University of Heidelberg and was Head of Research at ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research. Since 2011, I have been Chairman of the Expert Commission for the Federal Government's "Energy of the Future" monitoring process and, since 2024, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "Energy Systems of the Future" (ESYS) initiative of acatech - National Academy of Science and Engineering, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. I was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Report and was repeatedly ranked among the 50 most influential economists in Germany in the F.A.Z. economists ranking. I was awarded the German Economics Prize 2022 by the Joachim Herz Foundation for outstanding research in economics. I am a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) .