About
Kees Klein Goldewijk is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Sciences at Utrecht University's Faculty of Geosciences, specifically within the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. With 35 years of experience in environmental research, he specializes in historical land-use reconstructions and their impacts on global environmental systems. His work bridges multiple disciplines including History, Archaeology, and Paleoecology to understand human impacts on Earth's systems throughout the Holocene.
His educational background includes an MSc in Plant Protection with specialization in Tropical Entomology and Integrated Pest Management from Wageningen University (1989), and a PhD from VU University Amsterdam (2012) titled '(Looking) Back to the Future: A reconstruction of historic land use and its application for global change research.'
- Carbon Cycling
- Climate Change
- Environmental History
- Land Use Modeling
- Anthropocene Studies
Dr. Klein Goldewijk's research focuses on developing the History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE), which provides historical land-use reconstructions covering 10,000 BCE to present. His work has significantly contributed to understanding when human activities began substantially altering the Earth's climate system, challenging conventional views about the Anthropocene's timing. He has been instrumental in pushing back the date when human farming and other practices began altering the planet.
- Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field by Web of Science (2018-2022)
- NWO-VENI grant recipient (2014)
- UU Early Career Fund awardee (2023)
- Contributing author to IPCC Fifth Assessment Report
Klein Goldewijk currently supervises two PhD students researching historical air pollution impacts and colonialism's environmental footprint. He has secured significant research funding including the UU Early Career Fund (260k Euro) and FAIR IT fund (50k Euro). His HYDE database serves as critical input for major international climate modeling projects including the Global Carbon Project, LUMIP, and CMIP7.
He leads the HYDE project (principal investigator), contributes to the LANDCOVER6K working group, and serves on the Scientific Steering Committee of PAGES. His research has important implications for understanding historical human impacts on climate and informing future sustainability policies.
