Professor Heiko Balzter named in Net Zero 50 UK 2025 List

Professor Heiko Balzter, Principle Investigator for the Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) Hub, has been recognised as one of the top 5 academics and 18^th overall in the Net Zero 50 List which spotlights innovators who are forging the UK’s path to Net Zero.

Congratulations Heiko!

A Professor of Physical Geography and Director of the Institute for Environmental Futures at the University of Leicester, Heiko also chairs the Programme Coordination Team of the UKRI Landscape Decisions Programme which has 70 constituent funded projects. He is a leading member of the National Centre for Earth Observation, and of the LULUCF (Land Use / Land Use Change and Forestry) Scientific Steering Committee for the UK National Greenhouse Gas Account.

Amongst being awarded 18^th place on the Net Zero 50 list, Heiko has also received:

• The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2011)
• The Royal Geographical Society’s Cuthbert Peek Award ‘for advancing geographical knowledge of human impact through earth observation’ (2015)
• The Copernicus Masters Award (Sustainable Living Challenge 2017),
• The Leicestershire Live Innovation Award for Space (2023) for his work on deforestation monitoring from satellites.

We’d like to once again congratulate Professor Heiko Balzter on this fantastic achievement and encourage him to keep up the critical work!