Christian Pfister studied history and geography (M.A.) at the University of Bern andin 1974, completed his PhD in history. In 1982, he finished his Habilitation (postdoctoral lecture qualification) at the University of Bern’s Institute of History and became associate professor and then extraordinary professor at the Institute of History. After working as a research professor for environmental and climate history at the Swiss National Science Foundation, he now is professor for economic, social and environmental history at the Institute of History.

Pfister has led numerous projects in climate and disaster research, e.g. the work package «Climate Risks » of NCCR Climate (2005 – 2008) and a work package within the 6th EU framework programme’s project “Millennium – European Climate of the last Millenium” (2006 – today). From 2006 he has also been a member of the „Scientific network for the investigation of historical disasters across cultures” (funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG). In 2000, he was awarded the Eduard Brückner-Award for interdisciplinary achievements in Climate History.

He has published more than 220 articles in books and journals on population, climatic change, nature-induced disasters, agrarian, forest, environmental and population history. Furthermore, he has published 5 monographs and 11 (co-) edited books, e.g. Mauch, Christof / Pfister, Christian (Ed.): Natural disasters, cultural responses: case studies toward a global environmental history. Lanham 2009.