Johannes Cullman is Scientific Advisor to the President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. Johannes is on loan from the World Meteorological Organisation, where he has served eight years as lead for water and climate activities.
Johannes moved to Geneva from the German Federal Institute of Hydrology, where he served as director responsible for strategy, science and partnerships. Prior to this, Johannes coordinated the German Transportation Ministry’s international water affairs and directed the German committee for the water programmes of UNESCO and WMO. He was Senior Advisor to WMO’s water activities and President of UNESCO`s Intergovernmental Council on water from 2012 to 2014. In his function as a department head in the German Federal Institute for Hydrology, he was the German representative to the Commission for the Hydrology of the Rhine River and co-organised the first climate change impact analysis for the Rhine River.
One of Johannes’s continuous focus areas has been data and information. He was responsible for German support for UNEP’s water quality monitoring systems related activities. He is familiar with data and information sharing arrangements in support of creating political trust in disputed situations. Johannes worked as a scientist for the Max Planck Institute in Amazonia, Brazil and as a development specialist for the German Development Cooperation in Chile.
Johannes holds a Master of Hydrology, a PhD in artificial intelligence and flood forecasting as well as a Habilitation in hydrology and water management. He completed a Master of Public Administration programme sponsored by the German Government and graduated in Anthropology and World Nutrition at the German Distance Learning University in Hagen.
