Dr. Jens Clausen, a mechanical engineer, is a co-founder of the Borderstep Institute and a senior researcher as well as head of Borderstep’s office in Hannover, Germany. His work focuses on research into start-ups and innovation as well as sustainable markets of the future, with a special focus on heating and cooling, climate adaptation, and green IT.

After obtaining his degree as a graduate engineer, Jens Clausen worked for Continental AG as a product development and application engineer. From 1993 to 2000, he served on the DIN Standards Committee “Principles of Environmental Protection.” In 2004, he obtained his doctorate at the Institute for Institutional and Socio-Economics of the University of Bremen. He has advised the Startup Impuls Gründerwettbewerb (a start-up competition) for the Hannover region as a reviewer since 2006.

Jens Clausen’s home is made of wood and has a sod roof, is too large, and part of an ecological model neighborhood dating back to the 1980s. Since his two sons can now mostly take care of themselves, he has started reading long books again. His best ideas come to him when he is walking the family’s terrier, which is why he always takes his cellphone along.