2024 Wladimir Köppen PrizeFrom Humboldt to Hasselmann: Society in climate research

24 June 2025, by Franziska Neigenfind

Photo: private

Connects fields that aren’t traditionally viewed together: Dr. Youssef Ibrahim.

How does climate change affect prosperity, tolerance and migration? Does it lead to hate-filled tirades, violence and war? Does it decrease performance at school and in sports? Social phenomena aren’t just the purview of the social sciences; climate research, too, takes a closer look at society. But why exactly?

Hamburg-based sociologist Youssef Ibrahim is investigating how society became an object of study for the climate sciences and how a natural sciences-based perspective can shape notions of society. In recognition of his outstanding dissertation, he was awarded the 2024 Wladimir Köppen Prize from the Cluster of Excellence CLICCS.

In his thesis, he details how descriptions of society and perceptions of the climate changed from the mid-19th century to the formation of the IPCC in 1988. Ibrahim starts with key pioneers – like the explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who defined the climate with a clear connection to humankind, and Wladimir Köppen, who divided Earth into climatic zones using his famous spatial classification system. He skillfully connects the shift towards more mathematically driven disciplines with the physics-based greenhouse theory and the dynamic climate models developed by Hamburg-based physicist Klaus Hasselmann. 

Ibrahim argues that, in the sciences, the climate has always served as a mirror for society: climate research not only describes physical phenomena; it also creates and affirms social paradigms, categories and boundaries. As such, the concept of “climate” ultimately encompasses the entirety of human life and how we live together – the core outcome of his analysis. Ibrahim illustrates how our understanding of the climate has changed over time, and with it, how we describe society.

His dissertation puts forward two variants of a model that divides society into what he calls social climate niches. Here, the climate is viewed as a container of sorts, which forms and imposes limits on social structures. In Humboldt’s and Köppen’s day, science was predicated on a stable, geographically defined climate. The climate, and with it, the majority of societies, were classified on the basis of economic, political or colonialist perspectives. As such, the model described societies in their respective, spatially limited climates. With the advent of the greenhouse theory in the second half of the 20th century, these notions were supplanted by descriptions that approach the climate and society in relation to time and always in the singular. Now the focus is on how global society and the global climate are changing, and what the global impacts are.

The jury praised how Ibrahim combined historical trends, sociological theories and current discourses, drawing connections between fields that aren’t traditionally viewed together. His dissertation impressively shows how the natural sciences perspective shapes society’s self-image. “Youssef Ibrahim approaches natural sciences-based climate research from a sociological standpoint, allowing him to analyze society from a natural sciences perspective, systematically and guided by theory,” says Prof. Johanna Baehr, Speaker for the Cluster of Excellence CLICCS. “This dual perspective shift is fascinating – both for our Hamburg-based Cluster, which brings together the natural and social sciences, and for the social climate discourse. My heartfelt congratulations to Youssef Ibrahim on winning the Wladimir Köppen Prize!”

Publication: Ibrahim, Y., 2025: Soziale Klima-Nischen. Eine historische Soziologie naturwissenschaftlicher Gesellschaftsbeschreibung. Weilerswist: Velbrück (forthcoming).