Since almost 25 years Professor Dr. Jürgen Runge (*1962) has worked as a Physical Geographer and Environmentalist on the evolution of tropical landscapes, former and recent environmental changes and on questions related to tropical and subtropical land use in subsaharan semi-humid and humid regions in Africa. After basic studies in Geography, Geology, Soil Science and Botany at the Universities of Giessen and Göttingen, he regionally specialized on West and Central Africa as an assistant Professor at the University of Paderborn. Since the 1990’s extended field work and scientific expeditions on the Late Pleistocene climate and vegetation in the Congo basin and neighbouring areas were undertaken. In 2000 he was appointed as a full Professor for Physical Geography and Geoecology with regional focus on subsaharan Africa at Frankfurt University. In 2003 he set up the ‘Center for interdisciplinary research on Africa’ (Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Afrikaforschung, ZIAF, www.ziaf.uni-frankfurt.de) In 2005 he tooks over the editorship of ‘Palaeoecology of Africa’. Between 2007 and 2010 he worked as a project manager for the the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in the topic of sustainability of geological resources and good gouvernance in Central Africa.