Dr. rer. nat. Rainer Matthias Sodtke, born 1969, in Freising, studied Geo-ecology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, main focus on landscape ecology, soil sciences, agro-ecology and systems analysis. PhD in Natural Sciences at Christian-Albrechts University at Kiel by means of a thesis about the development of a decision support system for agricultural cover cropping.

1997-2001 researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape and Land Use Research in Müncheberg.

2001-2004 researcher at the Chair of Forest Growth and Yield Science, Technical University of Munich.

Since May 2004 researcher at "AgChange. Conflicts of the New Agricultural Policy" at the Research Centre on Biotechnology, Society and the Environment, University of Hamburg.

Married, father of three children.