About Me

Kai J. Tiedemann

Back in the loop. This is my second attempt to finish FabAcademy after starting (and eventually dropping out) in 2018 and spending 2019 on a research semester in Costa Rica and England. I am very happy and excited about this second chance. I hold a Diploma in biology with a minor in civil engineering and a Master degree in Management, Business and Economics, both from Aachen University. It was there, too, where I did my PhD on fog harvesting and water cycles of tropical cloud forests. After that I worked as scientific staff at the Research Institute for Water and Waste Management (Aachen University - again) before I became full professor at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences back in 2010. Between 2006 and 2009, my wife Anne and I lived in Lima (Peru) where we created the NatGeo-funded Green Desert Project - an experience that is still so vividly present and with yet so much potential for improvements that I chose it as inspiration for my final project. My professorship is in Environment and Ecology, I teach Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Water Management, Business Administration, Environmental Economics, and some other - all in our bachelor degree program Environment and Energy (one of the few opportunities to achieve a Germam degree that is entirely taught in English). Besides lectures, me and a number of colleagues dedicated ourselves for the better part of the past 2 years to the Rhine-Waal Green FabLab which will be officially launched in April 2020. Our Kamp-Lintfort campus is home to one of the largest FabLabs in Germany that keeps me fascinated ever since I first visited. Playing an active part in the soon-to-come new FabLab division I found it essential to take part in FabAcademy.