Gerd Michelsen is an economist, Vice-Chair of the COPERNICUS Alliance is head of the Institute for Environmental and Sustainability Communication at the University of Lüneburg, Germany.  He was co-founder of the Institute of Applied Ecology in Freiburg (Öko-Institut Freiburg) and its first director.

Since 1995 he has been a Professor at the University of Lüneburg in the Department of Environmental Science and Director of the Institute for Environmental and Sustainability Communication, which since 2005 also houses the UNESCO Chair ‘Higher Education for Sustainable Development’. He is member of UNESCO Reference Group "World Decade Education for Sustainable Development" in Paris. Prof. Michelsen is a member of Germany’s national Committee ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ of UNESCO.

Gerd’s research fields are environmental education, consultancy and communication, including the theory of environmental education and Education for Sustainable Development.