Max Planck Institute for Chemistry welcomes Eric Kort as new director
The atmospheric scientist Eric A. Kort has accepted the appointment as new director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.
How are human activities and global warming changing the chemistry of the atmosphere, and what effects do these changes have on air quality, the climate, and the Earth system? US researcher Eric A. Kort will be investigating these key questions in Mainz in the future. The internationally renowned atmospheric researcher has been appointed a scientific member of the Max Planck Society and took up his position as the new director of the Department of Atmospheric Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry February 1, 2026. He succeeds atmospheric chemist Jos Lelieveld, who headed the department until July 2025 and has been an Emeritus Scientific Member since August 2025.
Previously, Eric Kort was a professor in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, and led the Atmospheric Composition & Chemistry research group. There, he focused on understanding the composition of the atmosphere and its dynamic changes in response to human and natural influences.
Predicting climate and air quality requires understanding how human activities change atmospheric chemistry
Eric Kort will continue and expand his research topic methodologically in Mainz, bringing together observations with models. This will include collecting and interpreting space-based, airborne, and ground based measurements with regional to global-scale earth system and atmospheric chemistry models to answer questions such as: Why has the atmospheric growth of methane, an important greenhouse gas and pollutant precursor, been erratic for the past 40 years, and what should we expect in the future? What are the air quality and climate impacts of our changing energy and refrigeration systems?
Kort, a physicist with an impressive expertise in aircraft campaigns, instrument development, remote sensing, and modeling, says of his new position: “I am deeply honored and humbled to join the Max Planck Society and the MPI for Chemistry. The legacy of accomplishments from the MPI for Chemistry in atmospheric chemistry is deep and enduring. I look forward to collaborating with the outstanding colleagues, students, engineers, technicians, and staff to work together to push the boundaries of science at MPIC. I greatly appreciate the scientific freedom and opportunity to pursue important questions with local to global impact enabled by the Max Planck Society.”
Gerald Haug, managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, says: “It is with great pleasure that I announce the successful recruitment of Eric Kort, a globally renowned atmospheric scientist and expert in the field of methane. Methane, alongside carbon dioxide, is one of the most significant greenhouse gases. If we understand the factors contributing to rising methane emissions worldwide, we can tackle one of the most pressing challenges in climate protection.”
About Eric A. Kort
The 43-year-old Kort is the author and co-author of over 115 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals such as Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He has been involved in more than a dozen airborne field campaigns and three different satellite science teams. He is member of multiple science advisory boards and academy committees, including the Integrated Carbon Observing System ICOS – a European-wide greenhouse gas research infrastructure –, the US-American National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space, and the public private partnership Carbon Mapper Inc.
Prior to joining the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 2013, Eric Kort was a W.M. Keck Institute for Space Studies postdoctoral fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He completed his SM and PhD degrees in applied physics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his BA in Physics at Pomona College in Pomona, California.
Eric Kort is married and has two children.
Further information
https://kort.engin.umich.edu/
https://kort.engin.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/595/2025/02/CV_Eric_Kort_Feb_2025_v1.pdf
https://www.mpic.de/3537962/Atmospheric_Chemistry
Contact
Eric A. Kort, PhD
Director
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Hahn-Meitner Weg 1
55128 Mainz, Germany
E-Mail: eric.kort@mpic.de
Telephone: +49-6131-3054010