Prof. i.R. Dr. Eva-Maria Pfeiffer

Eva-Maria Pfeiffer was born on 17.09.1955 in Landau. Since the winter semester 2002/03 she is C4-professor for soil science at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Hamburg. She studied biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main and finished her Ph.D. in geosciences in 1985 at the University of Hamburg. As a postdoc she carried out an EU project on heavy metal pollution of tropical soils on the Philippenes until 1987. Afterwards she worked as a scientific employee in the Environmental Protection Agency of the City of Hamburg until 1989. Being an assistent professor from 1989 to 1996 at the University of Hamburg, she finished her habilitation in 1997. Until the end of 1998 she worked as a scientic employee and vice section head in the field of soil protection at the Environmental Protection Agency of the City of Hamburg. Afterwards she became a scientific employee at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Ocean Research in Bremerhaven and at the research station Potsdam. At that time she was also teaching at the University of Potsdam. The focuses of her research and teaching at the University of Hamburg are soil ecology and soil genesis. The working group "Soil ecology and soil genesis" is concerned with pedogenic processes of the anaerobic C turnover with focus on methane emissions and the N circulation in ecosystems in different climates. Since 2004 she is directress-general of the Institute of Soil Science and educational dean of the Department Geosciences.

On April 1, 2021 Eva-Maria Pfeiffer has retired.

• Research and teaching focus soil ecology and soil genesis in ecosystems in diferent climates, especially arctic and tropical soils
• Current BMBF joint projects 'Laptev Sea 2000' and 'Process Studies on Permafrost Dynamics in the Laptev Sea'
• Further working focuses: Soil quality and soil assessment; in this field several projects are carried out in Northern Germany (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein)

• Vice Dean of the Department Geosciences of the University of Hamburg
• Directress-general of the Institute of Soil Science
• Chairwoman of the Cryosol Working Group of the International Union of Soil Science and the International Permafrost Association (CWG IUSS & IPA)
• Co-chair des geplanten Projekts 'Carbon Pools in Permafrost Regions' (CAPP) der Internationalen Permafrost Vereinigung (IPA)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Alfred Wegener Foundation (AWI)
• Member of the Advisory Board of the German Society of Polar Research (DGP)

• AWI Potsdam
• GEOMAR Kiel
• Universität Tyumen, Russland
• Universität Cantho, Vietnam
• Universität St. Petersburg, Russland