For almost four decades, Thomas Wohlgemuth has conducted research at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), playing a key role in shaping the institute’s scientific and strategic development. With his retirement at the end of April 2026, the WSL bids farewell to a key figure of its Directorate.
Thomas ‘Tom’ Wohlgemuth is stepping down after almost four years on the WSL Directorate. In September 2022, the ETH Board appointed Wohlgemuth—then Head of the Disturbance Ecology Research Group—to the WSL Directorate. As a member of the Directorate, he made a significant contribution to the strategic development of the research institute and played an active role in shaping WSL’s Strategy 2035. With his retirement at the end of April 2026, Tom Wohlgemuth is now leaving the WSL Directorate. However, he will remain at WSL for a while longer as a visiting scientist.
Biologist by training, Wohlgemuth established himself early on as an innovative researcher in vegetation science and carried out pioneering work by digitally processing data on ferns and flowering plants in Switzerland. His work had a particularly strong influence on research into forest and disturbance ecology. He investigated how extreme events such as storms, forest fires and drought affect forests, and demonstrated how forests regenerate following windthrow. His research attracted considerable international attention and helped strengthen WSL’s position in this field.
With over 12,000 citations, Tom Wohlgemuth is also one of the most cited forest ecologists in the German-speaking world. His textbook on disturbance ecology, published in 2019, is considered the first reference work on this subject in German and has since been translated into English. Wohlgemuth also made significant contributions to regional biodiversity research, including the systematic survey of the flora of the Canton of Zurich.
Over many years, Tom Wohlgemuth has closely linked scientific work, strategic issues and engagement with practitioners, thereby helping to shape the development of WSL both in terms of content and organisation, also as a member of the Directorate: “Implementing and contextualising WSL’s research results were particularly important to me, as was maintaining contact with users,” he says.
WSL thanks Tom Wohlgemuth for his many years of service and for his significant contributions to forest and environmental research, and wishes him all the best for this new chapter in his life.
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