Reinhold Leinfelder was a Carson Fellow from June 2011 - September 2011 and from February 2012 - April 2012. In May 2012, he became an Affiliated Carson Professor.
Reinhold Leinfelder studied geology and palaeontology at LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität) and completed his PhD at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in 1985, working on palaeogeography, palaeoecology, and sediment dynamics of the Jurassic Period in Portugal. He has been a professor at universities in Stuttgart and Munich (LMU). Leinfelder is presently based in Berlin (Humboldt Universität, Jan. 2006-March 2012, Freie Universität since April 2012), where he teaches and researches historical geology, sedimentary geology, invertebrate palaeontology, exobiology, and science communication with two special foci: one on the evolution, ecology, threats, and protection of coral reefs and oceans, the other on science communication and the interaction of culture and nature. Leinfelder’s second institutional associations include natural history collections and museums. He has been director, then general director of the Bavarian Natural History State Collections, and from 2005 to 2010, he refurbished collections, research networks, exhibitions, and education at the renowned Museum für Naturkunde Berlin as the institution's general director. Leinfelder is a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Science and a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) His current research interest focuses on the concept of the Anthropocene, which combines natural, social, cultural sciences, and the humanities to study the present state and future development of the Earth.
Leinfelder is currently an affiliated Carson Professor at the RCC; he is assisting with the conceptualization and planning of the joint RCC-Deutsches Museum exhibition, tenatively titled “Anthropocene—Nature and Technology in the Age of Humans,”  and scheduled to open in fall 2014.