Executive Director
ANU Climate Change Institute
(College of Asia and the Pacific)

1975 PhD University of Florida (USA)
1972 MSc University of Florida (USA)
1970 BSc University of Missouri (USA)

Professional Background
Steffen has a long history in international global change research, serving from 1998 to 2004 as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), based in Stockholm, Sweden, and before that as Executive Officer of IGBP’s Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project.   Prior to taking up the CCI Directorship in 2008, Steffen was the inaugural director of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. From 2004 he has served as science adviser to the Department of Climate Change, Australian Government.

Research and Teaching Interests
Steffen’s interests span a broad range within the field of sustainability and Earth System science, with an emphasis on the science of climate change, approaches to climate change adaptation in land systems, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and the history and future of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature.

Notable publications
Steffen, W., Sanderson, A., Tyson, P.D., Jäger, J., Matson, P., Moore III, B., Oldfield, F., Richardson, K., Schellnhuber, H.-J., Turner II, B.L. and Wasson, R.J. (2004). Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. The IGBP Book Series, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 336 pp.

Steffen, W., Crutzen, P.J. and McNeill, J.R. (2007). The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of Nature? Ambio 36: 614-621.

Steffen, W., Andreae, M.O., Bolin, B., Crutzen, P.J., Cox, P., Cubasch, U., Held, H., Nakicenovic, N., Scholes, R., Talaue-McManus, L., Turner II, B.L. (2004) Abrupt changes: the Achilles heels of the Earth System. Environment, 46 (No. 3): 9-20.

Costanza, R., Graumlich, L. and Steffen, W. (eds) (2006) Integrated History and Future of People on Earth, MIT Press, Dahlem Workshop Report 96, 495 pp.

Gordon, L.J., Steffen, W., Jönsson, B.F., Folke, C., Falkenmark, M. and Johannessen, Å (2005) Human modification of global water vapor flows from the land surface. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 102: 7612-7617.