Leonard Burtscher
Astronomers for Planet Earth International coordinator
Dr. Leonard Burtscher obtained his PhD in 2011 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (Heidelberg) and worked as a postdoc at the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial physics on the VLTI instrument GRAVITY (Garching). From 2017 until 2022 he was a staff scientist at Leiden Observatory and worked for the ELT instrument METIS as calibration scientist. He currently works as a climate and energy policy advisor at the Munich-based NGO Umweltinstitut München e.V.
Leo is also a co-founder of the grass-roots network “Astronomers for Planet Earth” and serves as one of two international coordinators; he has initiated several international activities to help combat human-induced climate change through an astronomical perspective.