Andreas Fischlin is head of the Terrestrial Systems Ecology Group since its formation in November 1988. The Terrestrial Systems Ecology Group belongs to the Institute of Integrative Biology of ETHZ (affiliated with Prof. Peter Edwards, group Plant Ecology). It was for many years member of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology at ETH Zurich where it was affiliated with the Soil Physics Group (Prof. em. H. Flühler). Since 1982 Andreas Fischlin teaches at ETH and University Zurich. He has been appointed professor at ETH Zurich.

Andreas Fischlin was born on Dec 2, 1949 in Bern and studied at ETH Zurich biology (Master with distinction) as well as systems and control theory (Post-graduate diploma). There he graduated with a doctorate in population ecology in 1982 (silver medal for exceptional PhD theses). As a postdoc and research associate he did research at the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology of British Columbia, Canada, and at the Maritimes Forestry Research Centre, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, from 1982 to 1985. After his return to ETHZ he taught Systems analysis, insect ecology plus computer sciences at ETH and University of Zurich and worked at the Institute of Phytomedicine as supervising assistant and consultant for natural sciences at the newly formed project centre IDA under the auspices of Prof. Walter Schaufelberger (†). For his work on «Teaching Means in the Field of Electrical Engineering» he won the Denzler award 1989 of the Swiss Electrotechnical Association (SEV/ASE). Andreas Fischlin was one of the leading designers of the new curriculum in environmental sciences and helped to found the new department of environmental sciences.

His main research interests are modeling of ecosystems, in particular forest ecosystems in a changing climate, the ecology of population cycles, and the development of a methodology for the structured modeling of complex ecological systems. He lectures at several faculties systems ecology and global ecology, including methods of structured ecological modeling and techniques to simulate ecological systems. He has been Convening Lead Author of the chapter "Climate change impacts on forests" of "Climate Change 1995", the Second Assessment Report prepared for IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and has recently served as senior Coordinating Lead Author of the chapter "Ecosystems, their properties, goods, and services" of the Assessment Report Four "Climate Change 2007" of the IPCC. The latter work made him a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007. He is member of many scientific organisations, advises since many years as representative of Swiss scientists the Swiss delegation in all UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) negotiations, and has published numerous articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and books.