Dr. Katrin Kohnert has been a Scientific Associate at the office of the Council of Experts on Climate Change (ERK) since November 2021. Previously, she worked at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries on climate change-induced changes in water bodies, in particular on greenhouse gas exchange between water bodies and the atmosphere. As part of her doctorate, she studied greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic permafrost regions as a Research Assistant at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. She received her doctorate in Environmental Sciences from the Technical University of Braunschweig and studied Geoecology and Global Change Ecology at the University of Bayreuth with a semester abroad at the University of Iceland in Reykjavík.

Cynthia Schmitt has been responsible for Communications as well as for the publications of the Council of Experts on Climate Change (ERK) since October 2022. As a North American Studies and German Studies student, she completed a DAAD-funded Bachelor Plus at Leipzig University with a study visit and publishing internship in the United States. During her Master’s at the Free University of Berlin, she worked for the Chair of the American Literature Department at the John F. Kennedy Institute (JFKI) and supported numerous German and English-language publication projects both organizationally and as an editor.

Stefania Smolkina has been working as the Team Assistant and Office Administrator at the office of the Council of Experts on Climate Change (ERK) since April 2025. Her background is as an artist and filmmaker with a focus on research. Since 2014, in addition to her artistic practice, she has gained extensive experience in press and public relations, video production, photo documentation, teaching and film mediation. She studied at the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, at the Leipzig Academy of Visual, at the Iceland University of the Arts in Reykjavík and at Werkleitz PMMC for Documentary Practice in Halle (Saale).