Christian Körner


Christian Körner is an Austrian–Swiss botanist and emeritus professor at the University of Basel. He is one of the world's most renowned scientists in the field of alpine plant ecology.

Life

Körner was born in Salzburg. Between 1968 and 1973, he studied biology and geosciences at the University of Innsbruck. He completed his PhD on water relations of alpine plants in 1977 at the University of Innsbruck. From 1977 to 1980, he did a Postdoc in the Austrian MAB alpine program and field work in the Caucasus, followed by research stays at the Australian National University, Canberra. From 1982 to 1989, Körner was senior lecturer at the University of Innsbruck. In 1989, he became full professor of botany at the University of Basel. Since 2014, Körner is emeritus.
He is chair of the Alpine Research Station ALPFOR on the Furkapass, Switzerland. Together with Erika Hiltbrunner and others, he researches alpine plant life at the ALPFOR station.
Körner has a widely known talent in explaining complex and seemingly difficult subjects. This talent attracted broad interest outside the scientific community. This was especially the case when Körner was invited by His Majesty the King of Sweden in 2003 to participate in a private royal colloquium aimed at describing and discussing the problems of global environmental change for the biosphere. Furthermore, Körner likes science mediation and comedy. Therefore, he attended the BES Science Slam 2015 in Edinburgh, performing 'What carbon cyclists can learn from bankers'.

Research interests