Rate My Professor Rupert Seidl

Prof. Dr. Rupert Seidl is Professor for Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management in Mountain Landscapes at the Technical University of Munich, where he has held the position since 2019 in the TUM School of Life Sciences. He also serves as Head of Research and Monitoring at Berchtesgaden National Park. Seidl received his M.Sc. in Forestry from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna and earned his PhD in Forestry from the same institution in 2008. He completed his habilitation in Forest Ecosystem Management at BOKU Vienna in 2014. Prior to his appointment at TUM, Seidl held positions at BOKU Vienna including Senior Scientist, Assistant Professor from 2013 to 2015, and Associate Professor from 2015 to 2019, during which he served as Deputy Head of the Institute of Silviculture from 2018 to 2019. He conducted postdoctoral research at Oregon State University from 2009 to 2011 and at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences from 2011 to 2012.

Seidl’s research focuses on ecosystem dynamics, forest management, disturbance ecology, ecological modeling, landscape ecology, climate change impacts and adaptation, resilience, and silviculture. He has authored or co-authored numerous high-impact publications, including papers in Nature Climate Change on forest disturbances under climate change and increasing forest disturbances in Europe and their impact on carbon storage, as well as work in Nature Communications on invasive alien pests threatening carbon storage in Europe’s forests. Seidl is a highly cited researcher and was listed among the top 100 most influential climate scientists by Reuters. He is a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report. His honors include an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2021, election to the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2016, the START-Prize of the Austrian Science Fund in 2015, the Schweighofer Innovation Prize in 2009, and a PhD awarded sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae in 2008.