Torsten Sachs has already held an assistant professorship in atmospheric physics at Technical University Braunschweig since 2016. Now he has been appointed as professor for land-atmosphere interactions. Torsten Sachs will continue to perform research tasks at the GFZ.

Torsten Sachs studied geoecology and environmental sciences in Braunschweig and Alaska. In 2009, he completed his doctorate at the University of Potsdam with research conducted at the Alfred Wegner Institute. Since then he has been working as a scientist at GFZ and has headed the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group "TEAM" (Trace Gas Exchange in the Earth-Atmosphere System on Multiple Scales) since 2012. He is also the spokesperson for the TERENO observatory in the North German Lowlands and represents the GFZ in the Arctic dialogue between federal ministries, research institutions and NGOs, in the Science Advisory Group of the German-French satellite mission MERLIN and, together with Bruno Merz, in the MOSES steering group.

His research currently focuses on exchange processes between the geosphere and the atmosphere. In particular, Torsten Sachs and his research group are investigating fluxes of CO_₂, methane, water and heat between different geoecosystems and the atmosphere. In addition to lakes and agricultural sites as well as arctic permafrost landscapes, the focus is currently on peatlands in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania that have been rewetted or are slated for rewetting. His group is contributing drone-based measurements of CO₂ emissions from rift systems to the ERC project EMERGE, led by Sascha Brune.