Hans Joachim Schellnhuber has been director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) since its foundation in 1992. He is chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change and was appointed Chief Government Advisor on Climate and Related Issues by the German Federal Government for the G8 and EU presidencies in 2007. As a member of the High Level Expert Group he also advises the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, on energy and climate change issues.

In 1993 he started teaching theoretical physics at the University of Potsdam. From 2001 to 2005 he was additionally engaged as Research Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and Professor at the Environmental Sciences School of the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK).

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals. He is elected Member of the Max Planck Society, the German National Academy (Leopoldina), the US National Academy of Sciences, the Leibniz Science Association, the Geological Society of London, and the International Research Society Sigma Xi. Schellnhuber is Ambassador for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and longstanding Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He authored or co-authored more than 200 articles and about fourty books on theoretical physics, environmental analysis and sustainability science.

In 2004 he was awarded the title "Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2007 he received the German Environment Prize for his scientific work in the field of climate impact research and its dissemination to politicians and the public.