Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph M. Schmidt, born in 1962, has been President of the Leibniz Association since July 2026. From 2002 to 2026, he was President of the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen. He studied economics at the University of Mannheim, received his PhD from Princeton University in 1991, completed his habilitation at the University of Munich in 1995, and held the Chair of Econometrics at the University of Heidelberg from 1995 to 2002. Since 2002, he has held the Chair for Economic Policy and Applied Econometrics at the Faculty of Management and Economics at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Since 2025, Christoph M. Schmidt has been a member of the German Bundestag’s Study Commission ‘Analysing the Covid-19 Pandemic and Lessons for Future Pandemic Events’. From 2024 to 2026, he was a member of the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI). In addition, he was and is member in various boards and councils: from 2009 to 2020 of the German Council of Economic Experts (chairman from 2013 to 2020); from 2019 to 2022 of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts (co-chairman from 2020 to 2022); from 2011 to 2013 of the Enquete Commission "Growth, Prosperity, Quality of Life" of the German Bundestag; from 2020 to 2021 of the "Corona-Expertenrat" (Corona Council of Experts) of the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia; since 2011 of acatech – Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften (since 2014 of the Executive Board and vice president since 2020); since 2020 of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; since 2015 of the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature and since 2018 of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Christoph M. Schmidt has been member of the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich since 2011, deputy chairman since 2023, chairman from 2013 to 2023, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation since 2014 and its deputy chairman since 2020, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation from 2016 to 2024 and since 2026, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne (EWI) from 2020 to 2023, and since 2020, member of the expert panel of the programme for the promotion of top-level research at universities ("Exzellenzstrategie") of the Joint Science Conference (GWK) and since 2021 member of the Supervisory Board of BMW AG. In 2025 he was Fellow of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation; since 2026, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the Board of Trustees of the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring and the jury of the Archimedes Science Award.
His work focuses on applied econometrics, including energy, innovation, health, and labor economics, as well as on the interface between research and science-based policy advice. He was editor of the Journal of Population Economics (1996 to 2002), the German Economic Review (2009 to 2013) and the Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik (2023 to 2024). In 2016, he received the Gustav Stolper Award of the Verein für Socialpolitik, and in 2019, he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Economics at Leibniz Universität Hannover. In 2019, he was also awarded the title "Bürger des Ruhrgebiets" (citizen of the Ruhr area) by the association pro Ruhrgebiet. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has awarded the 2022 Innovation Prize in the "Honorary Award" category to Christoph M. Schmidt and in 2024 he received the "Preis der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft" ("Social Market Economy Award") from the WPCD (Wirtschaftspolitischer Club Deutschland e.V.). In 2025, Christoph Schmidt was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class.
