Thomas Bernward Fischer

I am a Professor of Impact Assessment (IA) with a focus on environmental assessment (EA) and health in IA at Liverpool University, UK, and an Extraordinary Prof at NW University, South Africa. I am editor of the Journal Impact Assessment & Project Appraisal and Director of Liverpool University‘s EA and Management Research Centre as well as the WHO Collaborating Centre on Health in IAs. I have worked on IA practices in numerous countries.

After an MSc in Geography (FU Berlin, Dipl-Geogr) in 1990 (with parts of the study programme completed at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France), I initially worked for an environmental and landscape planning consultancy (GUT) in Potsdam for over three years. This was followed by an appointment as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Project Manager at DEGES, Berlin, a sub-division of the Federal Transport Ministry. I then started a PhD into the consideration of environmental and sustainability aspects and strategic environmental assessment in spatial and transport policy, plan and programme making in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany at Manchester University (UK). Subsequently, after 18 months as a Research Associate at the University of the West of England and a two-year appointment as Senior Researcher at the Leibnitz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS), I became a professor at the University of Liverpool in 2002.