Franz Mauelshagen received his PhD in history from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He was a Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Directors at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) / Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen, Germany, where he also coordinated the "Climate & Culture" research program. In 2010 he was awarded a research grant from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) for the project "Climates of Migration: Climate Change and Environmental Migration in History." Franz’s research focuses on the history of climate, natural hazards and adaptation to environmental risk. This includes the history of climatology, on which his RCC project is focused. More recently, he has also worked on great transformations in history and their implications for a future ecological transition. His first book Wunderkammer auf Papier: Die Wickiana zwischen Reformation und Volksglaube (A Cabinet of Curiosities on Paper: Johann Jacob Wick’s Wonderbooks) has been awarded a translation grant by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels. Franz is one of the founders of the International Society for Historical Climatology and Climate History.