Derk Loorbach Professor & Director

Derk Loorbach is director of DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at Erasmus University Rotteram's School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He is also the academic figurehead of the Dutch Climate Research Initiative (KIN).

In recent years, Derk has been among the 2% most cited scientists worldwide. As one of the founders of the transition management method, he always strives to work on the frontier of fundamental social change. All his academic work is action research, meaning it is inextricably linked to the development of transition practice in business, the policy sphere and the social domain.

For example, Derk co-wrote a UN Environment Program GEO for Business brief, has 40+ DRIFT experts working under his leadership on advice, post-academic education and applied research for transitions, was a co-curator of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2022, and he is the founder of the Erasmian transition platform DIT for educational and research innovation.

Derk is also a family man, bassist and (counter)culture aficionado.