Faculty
Our faculty promotes contemporary and interdisciplinary research and teaching. In doing so we rely on an innovative governance structure and a division of labour. Administrative structures exist only at faculty level and at the professorships. The institutes of the UNR are understood as thematically driven networks that collaborate across strategic questions in research and teaching. Each institute is coordinated by a professorial spokesperson team. The 40 professorships in the faculty are assigned to at least one of three institutes:
- Institute of Forest Sciences
- Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and Geography
The Faculty in Portrait
Institute of Forest Sciences
The Institute of Forest Sciences covers all areas of analysis and management of forest ecosystems and deals with the relationship between society and the forest. It can look back on a hundred‑year tradition of Forest Sciences at the University of Freiburg and brings together ecological‑natural‑scientific, technical, economic and social‑scientific disciplines to answer the complex questions regarding the sustainable provision and use of the forest’s ecosystem services.
Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences
The Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences is dedicated to the study of the Earth system. The Earth’s spheres – the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and cryosphere – exchange energy and matter with each other and are linked on various scales. The institute aims to improve understanding of the states, processes, cycles, interactions and feedbacks within and between these spheres and to quantify human activity in its local and global environment.
Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and Geography
The Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and Geography represents a clustering of social‑scientific expertise concerning questions of environment, natural resources and sustainability. The institute focuses on analysing the complex relationships between people, society and the environment, especially in the context of global change and societal transformation towards sustainability.