Reiner Klingholz is one of Germany's most distinguished demography and development experts. From 2003 to 2019, he was Director of the Berlin Institute for Population and Development and from 2009 to 2019 he also served as its Executive Director. The chemist and molecular biologist (*1953) did his doctorate on macromolecular DNA structures in the faculty of chemistry. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Hamburg until 1983 and until 1989 he was science editor of the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. He then became editor of the monthly magazine GEO as well as managing director for the science section and head of the editorial board of GEO WISSEN until 2000. Since 2001 he has been specialising as a freelance author and consultant in development policy. In 2002, he became managing director of the environmental and development organization "GEO protects the rainforest", before becoming director of the "Berlin Institute for World Population and Global Development". From 2005 to 2007 Klingholz was also a member of the Enquete Commission "Demographic Change in the State of Lower Saxony", from December 2012 to 2015 he was a member of the board of trustees of the IBA Thuringia and in 2013 and again in 2015 he was Researching Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) in South Africa. From September 2019 on he will again be in South Africa for a research project. The demography expert has received numerous awards for his work on climate change and demographic development, including the Development Policy Journalist Award of the German President on two occasions and the Book Award of the German Environment Foundation.