About me
Dr. Thomas Bruhn
Physics & Psycho-Dynamics
Mindsets & Sustainability
RIFS Potsdam & Club of Rome
Transdisciplinarity & Leadership
Before graduating from high school, I was unsure whether I wanted to study psychology or be brave enough to become a pianist. So I studied physics. In my free time, I wrote fantasy novels, which eventually led me to the topic that guides me today:
Sustainability as
Love for Aliveness
After completing my doctorate in nanophysics, I joined the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam in 2012, now the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) at the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). There, I conduct transdisciplinary research on the design of communication processes that enable cooperation between science and society.
Furthermore, I am interested in the relationship between mindsets and transformation – and, more generally, in learning processes between science, personal development and spirituality.
As a lecturer, I regularly teach at universities in Germany and China on topics related to transformation and leadership.
My great passion is group facilitation, shaped by approaches such as Art of Hosting and Design Thinking, as well as by psychodynamic consulting and leadership.
My perspective is shaped, not least, by the German Society CLUB OF ROME and my long-standing connection with thinktank30.
MY PERSPECTIVE IS
to attach to no perspective.
Clarity can only rise in ambiguity.
New possibilities emerge in letting go.
I'm an expert refusing to provide answers.
Gladly I am your container, not your therapist.
Diverging perspectives make sense simultaneously.
I'm a dreamer allowing you to find your own vision.
I'm a leader not claiming to know the right way.
I invite you into my Complexity Compass -
a space in compassionate community
around inner-outer transformation
for you to find your own path
IN THE ANTHROPOCENE.
Love for the diversity and complexity of the world -
The common thread of my story
I've probably carried a deep fascination for the nature of our existence since childhood. I remember watching documentaries about space as a child. A poster of the Earth seen from space hung above my bed, and I often marveled before falling asleep, imagining that at that very moment I was flying through space on this blue planet with all the other people, animals, and plants.
As a teenager, I lacked the courage (or the discipline) to become a pianist, and at the same time, I felt alienated by the psychology lectures I attended on a trial basis because they seemed so "detached from human nature" to me. So I studied astrophysics and eventually completed my studies with a doctorate in experimental nanophysics.
At the same time, I was grappling with questions that I couldn't explore in my physics studies. I wrote fantasy novels about my search for meaning and purpose. Over time, this evolved into a growing interest in what a sustainable human civilization might look like – and thus in sustainability and the work of the Club of Rome.
The desire to integrate these different perspectives led me to the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam (now: RIFS at the GFZ) in 2012. There, I experienced firsthand that response to complex societal challenges fail less due to a lack of knowledge than due to the way people from different backgrounds work and communicate with each other.
In the following years, I focused on topics such as CO₂ recycling and geoengineering. At the same time, it became increasingly clear to me that new forms of cooperation were necessary to meaningfully combine different perspectives. In practice, however, I frequently witnessed how stakeholders were stuck in dysfunctional communication patterns and were barely able to truly listen to one another, let alone solve complex problems together.
This led me to delve deeper into co-creative collaboration and facilitation, to deepen corresponding approaches in my work, and to complete relevant training.
.
At the same time, I became increasingly convinced that the challenges of our time cannot be addressed without also considering our own inner patterns of thought and perception. Together with colleagues, I began to explore the connections between sustainability and personal transformation – a path that led, among other things, to the founding of the research group "A Mindset for the Anthropocene".
To further deepen this understanding, I began a part-time Master's program at the International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) in Berlin, focusing on psychodynamic processes in groups and organizations.
Today I dedicate myself to the design and research of communication processes in which actors from different backgrounds become capable of learning and acting together.
My involvement in civic society has been a constant companion for many years. The Club of Rome is a central point of reference for my thinking. After my time at think tank 30 (tt30), I became a member of the German Association of the Club of Rome in 2019, and I have also supported it as a member of the board since 2020.
If you are curious to learn a little more about some key experiences from the scientific part of my journey or about my fascination with the symbol of the hexagon, then you can read on here.
And otherwise...
I spend as much time outdoors as possible - preferably on my feet or on the water -
and enjoy the beauty of this world, almost regardless of the weather...
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