Miranda Schreurs

Professor Dr. Miranda Schreurs was born in the United States, lived in Japan and the Netherlands for several years and speaks four languages. She has seen much of the world, but her professional home is now most definitely in Berlin. Since 2007, the 46-year-old Schreurs has been director of the Environmental Policy Research Institute at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is also a member of the Advisory Council on the Environment at the Federal Ministry of the Environment. “When they offered me the position of director at the Otto Suhr Institute, I didn’t hesitate,” she says. “The institute is unique in the world. The Freie Universität is one of the top ten universities in Germany and we work with many partners all over the world.”

A Passion for Science and Politics

Miranda Schreurs specializes in two topics: science and politics. She discovered her passion for both subjects at a very early age. On her travels through Indonesia, Korea and China, she was horrified by the environmental damage she saw and decided to commit to environmental preservation. At university, she developed her current focus, i.e. the interplay of national and global environmental policy. Before coming to Berlin, Schreurs worked as a professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. She received her doctorate from the University of Michigan and went on to work as a guest professor at universities in Japan. She was also awarded a number of research stipends.

Environmental Awareness High Among Germans

Schreurs considers Berlin “the place to be.” As she notes, “Germany is a forerunner in the fight against carbon dioxide emissions. There is also a very high awareness of nature and environmental protection among Germans. This is a country where people ride their bikes, buy organic food and take it home in bags they’ve brought with them.”