Zennström Professorship in Climate Change Leadership
The Zennström Professorship in Climate Change Leadership is an international visiting professorship in climate change leadership focusing on research, education and third stream activities in the area of climate change and transformative social change.
The professorship is funded by a donation from entrepreneur and Uppsala alumnus Niklas Zennström and his wife Catherine Zennström, through Zennström Philanthropies. The initiative started in 2015 and comprises a ten-year series of visiting professorships allowing internationally prominent researchers to be invited to the University for shorter or longer visits.
The professorship is tied to the Climate Change Leadership theme at the Department of Earth Sciences. The purpose of the professorship is to strengthen the development of knowledge in climate change leadership and contribute new perspectives on how societies can respond to the climate crisis in a scientific, just and fair, and sustainable way over the long term.
The research is interdisciplinary and covers climate policy, sustainable transformative social change, climate governance, justice issues and the interplay between research and society.
Since its inception, many internationally prominent researchers have served as Zennström professors. The professorship also functions as a platform for dialogue between academia, the public sector, civil society and the business community. Through seminars, teaching, public lectures and research collaborations, the initiative is helping to strengthen both the scientific and societal understanding of the climate challenges we are facing.
Zennström Professors
Karen O’Brien (2026), Professor emerita in Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway.
Frank Biermann (2025), Professor of Global Sustainability Governance, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Aarti Gupta (2025), Professor of Global Environmental Governance, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Stacy Vandeveer, (2023-2024), Professor of Global Governance and Human Security, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA.
Sverker C. Jagers (2022-2023), Professor of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
Stefania Barca (2021), Professor in Contemporary History, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Keri Facer (2019-2020), Professor of Educational & Social Futures, University of Bristol, Great Britain.
Kevin Anderson (2016-2018), Professor of Energy and Climate Change, University of Manchester, Great Britain and visiting Professor at Uppsala University.
Doreen Stabinsky (2016), Professor of Global Environmental Politics, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.
