Prof Ralf SEPPELT

Director of the Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems (LCSES), University of Luxembourg. 

Ralf Seppelt’s research explores the complex relationships between human societies and the environment, focusing on land use, ecosystem services, and global sustainability. 

His early work emphasized the need for consistent and integrated approaches to land-use and ecosystem service assessments. He promoted methodological rigor and stakeholder engagement, applying optimization algorithms to support sustainable resource management across spatial and temporal scales (read more).  

At the global scale, he has contributed to international projects on land system science, particularly mapping land-use intensification patterns and identifying region-specific strategies for sustainable land management (read more), land conversion (read more) and food system transition (read more). His studies on renewable resource use introduced the concept of synchronized “peak-rate years” revealing that many global renewable resources may have already passed their maximum sustainable extraction levels (read more). These insights offer a complementary perspective to concepts like the planetary boundaries framework. His research demonstrated that increasing crop diversity contributes to more stable agricultural systems, with context-dependent benefits influenced by region, landscape, and crop type (read more). 

A significant part of his work investigates how biodiversity underpins renewable resource provisioning and human well-being, specifically food security (read more). He developed conceptual frameworks linking land use, biodiversity, and agricultural productivity, revealing non-linear trade-offs and offering strategies to harmonize conservation and food security (read more). His meta-analyses have shown that while intensification increases yields, it typically reduces biodiversity, with the effects varying by ecosystem type and intensity level (read more). All this contributed to a nuanced understanding of the complexity of the global food system and its feedback of its underpinning biodiversity (read more).  

In addition to empirical studies, Seppelt has contributed to broader reflections on the role of science in society. He advocates for a transition from quantity-driven to quality-oriented research cultures, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, discovery, and relevance in addressing societal challenges—particularly in the face of misinformation and “postfactual” dynamics (read more). 

Throughout his academic career, Ralf Seppelt has been committed to teaching and mentoring. At Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, he taught courses in environmental modelling, while at the Helmholtz Centre he co-developed interdisciplinary synthesis modules for the graduate school HIGRADE, which are now implemented at the University of Luxembourg. 

He has supervised 20 doctoral students and 18 postdoctoral researchers in long-term appointments, six of whom have gone on to professorial positions. 

His commitment to public education is also reflected in his outreach work. In collaboration with the educational publisher KlettMINT, he developed LandYOUs, an online simulation game for students exploring sustainable land use strategies. He is also a regular contributor to MINT-Zirkel, a German teaching magazine focused on science and sustainability education. 

Ralf Seppelt’s work has reached broad audiences through media coverage in The Economist, The Independent, or Daily Mirror. In Germany, he has been featured in major news outlets such as Wirtschaftswoche, Tagesschau and Tagesthemen, or Die Zeit, and he co-authored a season of the popular science program Wissen vor 8 – Natur, aired by the national broadcaster ARD, on topics including sustainability and climate change. 

Seppelt has played an active role in academic governance and advisory bodies. Besides serving as reviewer and editor for various scientific journals, he served on the University Council of the University of Hohenheim from 2012 to 2021, and since 2025, has been a member of the University Council of TU Dresden. From 2012 to 2018, he contributed to the German Research Foundation’s Commission on Agroecosystem Research and was elected to the DFG Review Board for Agriculture, Forestry, and Veterinary Medicine from 2024 to 2025. 

In recognition of his interdisciplinary research and engagement, he became a fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in 2023, where he led a project on resilience and biodiversity-informed resource use. In 2020, the Helmholtz Centre awarded its science communication prize to all UFZ authors for their contribution to IPBES Assessments. Earlier, in 2010, he received the biennial medal from the International Society for Environmental Modelling and Software for his outstanding contributions to the field. 

After obtaining a master’s, Seppelt was a researcher at the Collaborative Research Center “Agroecosystems” of TU Braunschweig in 1994. He continued as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in environmental modelling and geoinformation systems at the Institute for Geography and Geoecology until 2004, when he was appointed Professor for Applied Landscape Ecology at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Since 2022, he has held the Chair in Landscape Ecology and Renewable Resource Economics. 

From 2004 to 2022, he led the Department of Computational Landscape Ecology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). From 2024 onwards, he led the research unit Ecosystem of the Future at UFZ. 

In March 2025, Prof. Seppelt became the Founding Director of the Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems (LCSES). 

His contributions to science-policy interfaces are notable. Within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Seppelt served as author for the Global Assessment, as expert on the Scoping Report, and as coordinating lead author for the Assessment on Biodiversity, Water, Food, and Health (Nexus Assessment).  

Further, he supported the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina with a special report on biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes (read more).  

Since April 2025, he has joined the Climate Policy Observatory (OPC) to contribute scientific insights for Luxembourg’s national climate strategy. 

Ralf Seppelt holds a diploma in Applied Mathematics from the University of Clausthal (1994). He earned his doctoral degree in Agroecology and System Analysis from the Technical University of Braunschweig (1997), followed by a habilitation in 2004. In 2011 he successfully finished the Helmholtz Academy on Scientific Management. 

[Download]