Thomas Foken is a retired Professor of Micrometeorology at the University of Bayreuth (Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research), Germany. He obtained his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) from Leipzig University in 1978 and the second doctoral degree (Dr. sc. nat.) from the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1990. He headed the laboratories of Boundary Layer Research and Land Surface Processes of the Meteorological Service of the GDR and the German Meteorological Service (DWD) in Potsdam (1981-1994) and Lindenberg (1994-1997). In 1997, Thomas Foken was appointed Professor of Micrometeorology. His main research areas relate to the interaction between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, and the measurement and modelling of energy and matter fluxes with a strong focus on measurement devices. He has been actively involved in internationally organized experiments for which he worked e.g. in Russia, USA, Tibet, and Antarctica.
Thomas Foken published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and authored several textbooks, among them “Micrometeorology”. His research significantly advanced the application of the eddy-covariance method. His scientific contributions have been internationally recognized through various awards, including the Dionyz Stur Medal in Silver of the Slovak Academy of Science, the Award for Outstanding Achievements in Biometeorology of the American Meteorological Society, the Honor Badge of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), and the Honorary Membership of the Hungarian Meteorological Society. In recent years, he has been consultant for Arctic and forest fire projects, and lecturer at the Eötvös Loránd University Budapest. In Germany, Thomas Foken is responsible for the standardization of atmospheric in-situ measurement techniques (VDI/DIN, ISO). As a specialist for climate and climate change in Northern Bavaria, he is regularly invited to give lectures for school students at events organized by the Fridays for Futuremovement.