Frans Berkhout is Professor of Environment, Society and Climate in the Department of Geography and Assistant Principal (King's Climate & Sustainability) at King’s College London, joining King's in 2013. From 2015 to 2021 he served as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy. Before that, he was also Director of the Future Earth programme, based at the International Council for Science (ICSU) in Paris. Prof Berkhout directed the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the VU University Amsterdam in The Netherlands (2004-2012), while also being founding Director of the Amsterdam Global Change Institute. Among other advisory roles, Professor Berkhout was a lead author in two Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007 and 2014) and a member of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) of the Higher Education Funding Council for England. He sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Industrial Ecology, Current Opinion on Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning and The Anthropocene Review. He is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for contributions to the IPCC.

His early research was concerned with the economic, political and security aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste management. Over the last 20 years, his work has been concerned with science, technology, policy and sustainability, with a focus on climate change. His main academic contributions have been to the understanding of innovation in socio-technical systems and adaptation to climate change impacts by organisations.