Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research ( PIK) investigated scientifically and socially significant issues in the areas of global change, global warming and sustainable development. Researchers from the natural sciences, economics and social sciences work together across disciplines to gain insights that can be used as the basis for decisions in politics, business and civil society.
The main methodologies are systems and scenario analysis, quantitative and qualitative modeling, computer simulation, and data integration. PIK is including membership of the International Geosphere - Biosphere Programme (IGBP ), it supports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ) in its presentation of scientific knowledge about global warming and helped create the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Organization
The PIK currently employs approximately 340 employees. The director of the PIK is the Professor of Theoretical Physics Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. Deputy Director of PIK is the climate economist Ottmar Edenhofer. One of the most famous members of the Institute is Stefan Rahmstorf. PIK is a member of the Leibniz Association, an association of non-university research institutes.
At PIK there are four different areas of research. Research Area I Earth System Analysis examines the coupled dynamics of physio, biosphere and anthroposphere under natural and man-made driving factors. Head of Research Department are Stefan Rahmstorf and Wolfgang Lucht. Research Domain II climate impact and vulnerability analyzes and assesses climate impacts and adaptation options, including socio -economic costs. Head of Research Department are Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Lotze- Gerstengarbe and camping. Research Area III Sustainable Solutions examines strategies and policy instruments to avoid climate change and to adapt to inevitable climate change. Head of Research Department are Ottmar Edenhofer and Anders Levermann. Research Area IV Transdisciplinary Concepts and Methods examined complex networks and dynamical processes in social and natural systems. Head of Research Department are Jürgen Kurths and Helga Weisz.
History
The PIK was founded in 1992 with Hans Joachim Schellnhuber as director. It is located in Potsdam on Telegraph hill, in the Albert Einstein Science Park, near the main train station. The main building of PIK, now called Michelson house was inaugurated in 1879 as the first Astrophysical Observatory of the world. The designed by Emanuel Spieker brick building three domes crown, of which today only serves one occasionally observing the sky. In the basement under the Ostkuppel found in 1881 the famous Michelson experiment was conducted, with the Albert Michelson studied the speed of the ether relative to the earth. In the same building was Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916), director of the Observatory at that time, 1915, the first exact solution of the field equations of general relativity by Albert Einstein. The used today by PIK building is part of a complex that already at that time served the purpose to study the relationship between the earth, sun and air. 1924 came the Einstein Tower, which was built to confirm the theories of Einstein experimentally.
2001 founded the Institute with six other research institutions, the European Climate Forum.