Mariam Akhtar-Schuster

Mariam Akhtar-Schuster is senior scientific advisor at the Project Management Agency in the German Aerospace Center (DLR-PT) in Berlin, Germany. A Geographer, Dr. Akhtar-Schuster holds a PhD from the Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences, University of Goettingen, Germany. Since 1988, she conducted field research on desertification/land degradation and drought in northeast and southern Africa. Key expertise includes morphodynamics and biodiversity in semiarid/arid regions; land use systems with special emphasis on mobile animal husbandry; science-policy communication on DLDD. She was co-founder and co-chair of the independent scientific network DesertNet International. She was member of the scientific steering committees that organized UNCCD´s 1st and 3rd scientific conferences (2009 and 2015). In 2012-2013 she chaired UNCCD´s ad hoc working group to further discuss the options for the provision of scientific advice to the Convention. Since 2014, she is co-chair of UNCCD’s science-policy interface (SPI), and in 2017 she was nominated by the IPCC as review editor for its special report on “climate change and land” (to be finalized by September 2019).