Professor Dr. rer. nat. Klaus Heine has been researching prehistoric climate since the 1970s, combining glacial geology, desert research, fluvial morphology, and soil science in a multidisciplinary way. Numerous research visits, often lasting several months, have taken him to Mexico, southern Africa, the South American tropics, and Australia. In addition to teaching at the Universities of Bonn, Saarbrücken, and Regensburg, he was a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia (Canada) in 1994 and at Kyoto University (Japan) in 2005/06. He is (co-)author of 150 publications in national and international journals and (co-)editor of several scientific books. He discussed his results in national and international seminars, projects, congresses, and field trips on five continents. Like no other, he surveys the development of global change research since its beginnings and can mediate hotly contested views on climate change.