Prof. Dr. Silke Beck
Professor for Sociology of Science
Sociology of ScienceSilke Beck’ is an internationally recognized expert in the field of global environmental expertise as well evidence-based policy-making on climate change, biodiversity and transformation towards sustainability. After an academic year in the Global Environmental Assessment Project (Harvard University), Beck has worked at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ Leipzig), one of Europe’s leading research centers on interdisciplinary environmental research development. She was (co)leading international inter- and transdisciplinary projects on climate change, ecosystem management, environmental innovation and sustainable transformation. The overarching goal of her research is to combine MCTS research on science in society with real-world engagements in advisory bodies and societal co-production in an interactive and reflexive way. She is also a founding member of the UFZ Science-Policy Expert Group which has performed a leading role in providing research in support of the design and evaluation of real-world interfaces in the field of global environmental politics: They have provided direct input into negotiation processes on the reform of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on the establishment of the national biodiversity network (Nefo) and the set-up of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=38006). Beck serves as lead expert for the IPBES Assessment of transformative change (https://www.ipbes.net/transformative-change). Recently, Beck is the principal investigator of the project “Governance of sociotechnical transformation” as part of the Belmont-Norface research programme “Transformation towards Sustainability” https://www.ufz.de/gost/.
Her work has been published in peer reviewed international academic journals such as Science, Nature, Current Opinion Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Science and Policy, Global Environmental Change, Global Environmental Politics, Regional Environmental Change, Science, Technology and Human Values, Futures and Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change.
ORCID 0000-0002-4157-0777
Qualifications and Career
| Stages | Periods and Details |
| Magistra Artium (Political Science, Germanistik) | October 1985 – February 1996
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, GE |
| Doctorate
Dr.rer.soc. |
July 1996 – October 2000
Ph.D. studies: Science and Technology Studies, Sociology; Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GE Supervisor: Prof. Dr. P. Weingart, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GE |
| Stages of academic career
|
|
| Research Fellow
|
Sept. 1999 – October 2000
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge/ Ma. USA |
| Research Scientist
|
August 2000 – June 2005
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Research Centre Karlsruhe/ GE |
| Senior Research Scientist | June 2005 – June 2015
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig/ GE |
| Subprogram Leader/Group Leader
|
June 2015 – June 2021
Acting Chair Environmental Politics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig/ GE |
| Associate Professor
|
2014: Guest professorship (Universitätsprofessur), Department of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, A |
| 2021-2022: Acting Chair, Friedrich Schiedel-Lehrstuhl für Wissenschaftssoziologie, TUM/ GE | |
| Full Professor (W3) and Chair | Since 2022:
W3 Full Professor and Chair of Sociology of Science and Technology, TU Munich, GE |
Global environmental expertise as well evidence-based policy-making on climate change, biodiversity and transformation towards sustainability
Category A
Beck, S., & Oomen, J. (2021). Imagining the corridor of climate mitigation–What is at stake in IPCC’s politics of anticipation? Environmental Science & Policy 123, 169-178, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.05.011
Beck, S. et al. (2021). The governance of sociotechnical transformations to sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 49, 143-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.04.010
Díaz-Reviriego, I., Turnhout, E. & Beck, S. (2019). Participation and inclusiveness in the Intergovernmental Science – Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Nature Sustainability 2(5), 457-464 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0290-6
Beck, S. & Mahony, M. (2018). The IPCC and the new map of science and politics. WIREs Climate Change 9(5), e547. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.547
Beck, S. & Mahony, M. (2017). The IPCC and the politics of anticipation. Nature Climate Change 7(5), 311-313. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2018.7
Lövbrand, E., Beck, S., et al. (2015). Who speaks for the future of Earth? How critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene. Global Environmental Change 32, 211-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.012
Geden, O. & Beck, S. (2014). Renegotiating the global climate stabilization target. Nature Climate Change 4, 747-748. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2309
Beck, S. (2012). The challenges of building cosmopolitan climate expertise: The case of Germany. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 3 (1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.151-496.
Beck, S. (2011). Moving beyond the linear model of expertise? IPCC and the test of adaptation. Regional Environmental Change 11(2): 297-306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0136-2
Hulme, M., Beck, S. et al. (2011). Science-policy interface: Beyond assessments. Science 333(6043), 697-698. https://doi.org/ 10.1126/science.333.6043.697
Category B
Beck, S. & Pfotenhauer, S.M. (2021). Germany. In S. Jasanoff, S. et al. (eds.). Comparative Covid response: crisis, knowledge, politics. Schmidt Futures Forum Report. Cornell University and Harvard Kennedy School.
Beck, S., & Forsyth, T. (2019). Bridging science and culture: participation and representation of transformative change in biodiversity assessments. Seeds of Change: Provocations for a New Research Agenda, 54-58. https://www.biodiversity-revisited.earth/
Ammann, T., Baatz, C., Bauer, N., Beck, S. et al (2019). Climate engineering and our climate targets-a long-overdue debate. DFG Broschüre des SPP 1689, https://www.spp-climate-engineering.de/index.php/climateengineering_spp1689_english259b-2.pdf?file=files/ce-projekt/media/download_PDFs/climateengineering_spp1689_english.pdf
Geden, O. & Beck, S. (2015). Klimapolitik am Scheideweg. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 65(31-32), 12-18. https://www.bpb.de/system/files/pdf/UDNNW5.pdf
Deutsches Klima-Konsortium (DKK) (2015). Perspektiven für die Klimaforschung 2015 bis 2025: Positionspapier.
[konsortium.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/Publikationen_DKK/DKK_Positionspapier_Mai_2015_Web.pdf]
Beck, S., et al. (2011). Synergien und Konflikte von Strategien und Maßnahmen zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel. Climate Change, 18, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/461/publikationen/4178.pdf
Beck, S. (2010). Vertrauen geschmolzen? Zur Glaubwürdigkeit der Klimaforschung. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 32, 15-21.
https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/32585/vertrauen-geschmolzen-zur-glaubwuerdigkeit-der-klimaforschung/
Mickwitz, P., Aix, F., Beck, S., et al. (2009). Climate policy integration, coherence and governance. Synthesis Report of PEER Climate Change Initiative – Project 2. http://peer- initiative.org/media/m235_PEER_Report2.pdf
Bechmann, G., Beck, S., et al. (1996). Sozialwissenschaftliche Konzepte einer interdisziplinaeren Klimawirkungsforschung. Endbericht. Wissenschaftliche Berichte FZKA 5715. doi: 10.5445/IR/270039081
2022 – today Editorial Board, Environmental Science and Policy
2014 – 2021 Senior Editor for the Oxford research encyclopedia of climate science
2005 – 2018 Co-Chair of the Working Group SCIENCE IN SOCIETY/ DKK/ GE
2007 – 2019 Steering committee of the DFG SPP 1689 Climate Engineering
2020 – today Lead expert/ Intergovernmental platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (Ipbes) assessment of transformative change
2014 – 2021 Co-speaker of the Working Group Politics, Science and Technology/ (DVPW)
2020 – today Member of the Advisory Board for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC): Feasibility of afforestation and biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (FAB- GGR)
2020 – today Member of the Advisory Board for the Norwegian research council: Understanding the international context for Norway’s low-emission economy transition (CONNECT)
2020 – today Member of the Advisory Board: FORMAS: Opening the portfolio of negative emissions technologies: A comprehensive study of social, techno-economic and ethical dimensions of biomass-based NETs in Sweden and Tanzania
2020– today Member of the Advisory Board for FORMAS: Tradeoffs between negative emissions and near-term emission reductions?
2022 W3 Full Professorship “Environmental Sociology”/ University Augsburg
2020 UFZ-Knowledge Transfer Prize
2020 Scoping Report of the IPBES Assessment of Transformative Change
2016-2021 Steering committee of the Priority Programme (SPP DFG) 1689 climate engineering, GE
2007-2022 Governing Council of the Science & Democracy Network, Harvard University, USA
1999 National Science Fellowship for the Academic Year 1999/ 2000/ Harvard University, USA
1996 – 1999 Doctoral Fellowship by German Science Foundation (DFG), GE