Axel Kleidon

Axel Kleidon is a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany. His research aims to understand the Earth as a thermodynamic system and applies these concepts to diverse topics ranging from basic research on climate, vegetation, and global change to renewable energy limits and human futures. Over the years, he has been key in promoting the use of thermodynamics and optimality principles in Earth system science. His books include Thermodynamic Foundations of...See more

Axel Kleidon is a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany. His research aims to understand the Earth as a thermodynamic system and applies these concepts to diverse topics ranging from basic research on climate, vegetation, and global change to renewable energy limits and human futures. Over the years, he has been key in promoting the use of thermodynamics and optimality principles in Earth system science. His books include Thermodynamic Foundations of the Earth System (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics and the Production of Entropy: Life, Earth, and Beyond (Springer, 2005), which he co-edited with Ralph Lorenz. See less