Prof. Dr. Matthias Kleinke

Matthias Kleinke was born and raised in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. He studied agriculture at the Humboldt University of Berlin and earned his doctorate in agricultural engineering with a thesis on the use of biomass in landscape management.

Following his research in Berlin, Dr. Kleinke moved to the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt), where he worked in the areas of scholarship programs and organic waste recycling. His position as the Head of Department for Agricultural and Forestry Recultivation at the Research Institute for Post-Mining Landscapes (FIB) led him back to Brandenburg, where he subsequently spent several years managing public waste disposal companies. In 2011, Dr. Kleinke was appointed Professor of Environmental Engineering at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, where he has since been responsible for this field of teaching and research at the Faculty of Life Sciences. From 2013 to 2017, he served as the Dean of the Faculty.

Applied environmental research and the utilization of material flows have been a common thread throughout Prof. Kleinke's work and remain at the core of his interests today. He considers both implementation-oriented collaboration with regional companies and cooperation with international partners to be essential.

Prof. Kleinke has taught as a visiting lecturer at many international universities and colleges, for example in Bangladesh, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Spain, Tanzania, Ukraine, and the USA.

In 2025, Prof. Kleinke was appointed Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), in the School of Materials, Energy, Water and Environmental Sciences (MEWES).

• van Leuven, N., Lucassen, R., Lipski, A., Rheinschmidt, R., Kleinke, M., Tewes, T. J., & Bockmühl, D. P. (2026). The Microbiota of Evaporative Cooling Systems and the Impact of Rainwater as an Alternative Water Source. Water environment research, 98(7), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/wer.70496.
• Rwiza, M. J., Focus, E., Bayuo, J., Kleinke, M., Kimaro, J. M., Lyasenga, T. J., Mosses, J. T., & Marwa, J. (2023). Artisanal and small-scale mining in Tanzania and health implications: A policy perspective. Heliyon, 9(4), e14616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14616.
• van der Wiel, B. Z., Weijma, J., van Middelaar, C. E., Kleinke, M., Buisman, C. J. N., & Wichern, F. (2021). Restoring nutrient circularity in a nutrient-saturated area in Germany requires systemic change. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 121(2-3), 209–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-021-10172-3.
• Rwiza, M., Kleinke, M., & Kim, K.-W. (2020). A study on Pb removal kinetics using modified agricultural wastes from Tanzania. SN Applied Sciences, 2(11), 1921. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03743-6.
• van der Wiel, B. Z., Weijma, J., van Middelaar, C. E., Kleinke, M., Buisman, C. J. N., & Wichern, F. (2020). Restoring nutrient circularity: A review of nutrient stock and flow analyses of local agro-food-waste systems. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 160, 104901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104901.

• 01/10/2023 - 30/09/2024 | Multidisciplinary approach to CONserve and FARM EDible insects for a circular food economy in Uganda | Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG | Go to project
• 01/07/2017 - 30/06/2021 | Bio-Wertstoffketten für neue hochwertige Produkte und Komponentenvel value-added products and compounds | Funder: BR Münster | Go to project