Klaus Lackner is the Ewing Worzel Professor of Geophysics and the Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Lackner’s current research interests include carbon capture and sequestration, air capture, energy systems and scaling properties (including synthetic fuels and wind energy), energy and environmental policy, lifecycle analysis, and zero emission modeling for coal and cement plants.
Lackner earned his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics, summa cum laude, in 1978 from Heidelberg University, was awarded the Clemm-Haas Prize for outstanding Ph.D. thesis, and was named a Fleischmann Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He was instrumental in forming the Zero Emission Coal Alliance and was a lead author in the IPCC Report on Carbon Capture and Storage. In 1991, he received the Weapons Recognition of Excellence Award. Lackner joined the faculty at Columbia University in 2001.