He received his first degree in Forestry from Indonesia’s Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) and earned a Ph.D. at Britain’s University of Reading. He is a professor in the Department of Geophysics and Meteorology at IPB. His research works are related to land-use change and biogeochemical cycles, climate change mitigation and adaptation. He has published a large number of articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters on these areas. He played an extensive role in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when he was a convening lead author of the Third Assessment Report and the Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. He also served as review editor of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. He served the government of Indonesia as Deputy Minister of Environment for two years, during which he was also the National Focal Point for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biodiversity. He is also a longstanding member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.