Profile

Martin Junginger (1976) is Full Professor Bio-Based Economy and chair of the Energy & Resources (E&R) group of the Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University. He has a background in chemistry and environmental science, and joined the staff of E&R in 2001 as PhD student, doing extensive research on the technological development and associated cost reductions of several renewable energy technologies, including onshore and offshore wind farms, biomass CHP plants in Sweden and biogas plants in Denmark. After obtaining his PhD in May 2005, he has mainly been working Sustainable International Bioenergy Trade. between  2013-2018, he was leader of IEA Bioenergy Task 40 on Sustainable International Bioenergy Trade (see www.bioenergytrade.org), in which topics like biomass sustainability assurance frameworks, bioenergy markets, logistic chains are investigated.  He works amongst others on charting and projecting international trade in biomass and biofuels (with a special focus on wood pellets), and identifying limitations and opportunities for bioenergy trade. His expertise includes solid biomass logistic supply chains and GHG balances including forest carbon accounting. The topics mentioned above are also covered by past and ongoing projects, e.g. the ongoing EU-funded projects ESCIB, HARMONITOR, 3-Co and CBE4I.  Past EU- projects with WP leads from UU also include Biotrade2020+, BioSustain, Pellets@las, EUBIONETIII, Re-shaping, DiaCore, and SolidStandards. Within the frame of these projects, Martin has organized several workshops (in the Netherlands and abroad) and given numerous presentations and lectures, amongst others in Brazil, Canada, the USA, Malaysia and more than 10 European countries. He also was contributing author to the bioenergy chapter of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources (SRRES). He is editor of two books, on international bioenergy trade and mobilisation of woody biomass from boreal and temperate forests.

Martins other major research interest covers technological development and cost reductions of (renewable) energy supply and energy demand technologies (which was also the main topic of his PhD thesis). Since 2005, he has acquired and worked several projects focusing on technological learning of energy demand technologies, 1^st and 2^nd generation biofuel production, and implementing experience curves in energy models. These efforts have recently culminated in the book “Technological learning in the Energy Sector: Lessons for Policy, Industry and Science” of which he is the first editor (together with Wilfried van Sark and Andre Faaij). For this book, more than 25 co-authors from amongst others Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the US made contributions, covering the technological development of a large variety of energy technologies. Martin has been supervising a large number of junior researchers over the past decade. To date (November 2023) this has led to six co-promotorships, fifteen promotorships and several ongoing promotor positions with expected finalization of the theses between 2024-2027. Furthermore, Martin is actively teaching the master-level course “Bio-Based Economy" with each about 30-50 students attending each year, and supervises several MSc students writing their thesis. He also coordinated the course 'Toolbox 1 - environmental assessment and management approaches' in the sustainable business and innovation (SBI) master, and  involved in several courses of the Energy Science master. Finally, he is reviewer for a variety of scientific journals, industry and government bodies. He (co-) published more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and currently has an H-index of 49 (Scopus). In addition he has published more than 120 titles in reports and conference proceedings, (co-) organized a range of international workshops and conferences and is frequently invited to scientific, policy and industry conferences.

A few facts & figures as of November 2023

• >130 titles published in peer reviewed scientific journals
• Co-author of >50 scientific reports and >70 conference papers
• Main editor of the book “Technological Learning In The Energy Sector. Lessons for Policy, Industry and Science” (together with eds. Prof. Dr. André Faaij and Dr. Wilfried van Sark), Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Cheltenham, UK, ISBN 978 2 84844 834 6, p. 332. 
• Main editor of the book: Junginger M, Goh CS, Faaij A (Eds.) International Bioenergy Trade: History, status & outlook on securing sustainable bioenergy supply, demand and markets. Springer, Dordrecht.  
• Editor of the book "Mobilisation of Forest Bioenergy in the Boreal and Temperate Biomes. Challenges, Opportunities and Case Studies." Evelyne Thiffault, C.T. Smith, Martin Junginger, Göran Berndes (eds). Elsevier,  1st Edition Paperback. ISBN: 9780128045145, eBook ISBN: 9780128096895,Imprint: Academic Press, Published Date: 12th May 2016.
• Broad experience with >30 projects and programmes for amongst others the European Commission, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and AgentschapNL, international bodies and the private sector.
• Supervised 6 Ph.D.-trajectories as co-promotor & 15 as promotor to date, as well as >50 Master students.
• More than 100 oral presentations at national and international events since 2004.

Relevant scientific and social positions (selection)

• Former Leader of Task 40 on “Sustainable Bioenergy Trade” under the IEA Bioenergy Agreement; participation of 14 countries and international institutions on four continents (coordinator between 2005-2012, leader from 2013-2018).
• Civil Society Co-chair of the SBP Standards Committee (January 2019 - December 2023)
• Organisation of several scientific workshops in Utrecht (the Netherlands), and workshops in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Berlin and Hamburg (Germany) Tsukuba and Tokyo (Japan), Copenhagen (Denmark), Campinas (Brazil) Trondheim (Norway), Brussels (Belgium) and Paris (France).
• Regular reviewing of publications for journals as Energy Policy, Energies, Biomass and Bioenergy, BioFPR, Energy, Biotechnology for Biofuels, International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, Journal of Cleaner Production, the International Journal of Energy Sector Management, and others.
• Member of the commission Corbey as of September 2013 until end of 2015, advising the Dutch parliament on biomass sustainability topics.