Carl is currently on leave from his Chair in Natural Resource Management at the Department of Systems Ecology, StockholmUniversity, a position he held since 1997 where he is still active as supervisor. He served as Deputy Director of the Beijer Institute 1991-1996 and Director of Stockholm University's Center for Transdisciplinary Environmental Research (CTM) 1999-2006.

He is among the founders of the Resilience Alliance and serves on the Executive Committee. He has been involved in the development of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and was engaged in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Extensive transdisciplinary collaboration experience
Carl has extensive experience in interdisciplinary collaboration between natural and social scientists, and has worked with ecosystem dynamics and services as well as the social and economic dimension of ecosystem management and proactive measures to avoid loss of resilience.

The work of his research team in Stockholm emphasizes the role that living systems at different scales play in social and economic development and how to govern and manage for resilience in integrated social-ecological systems. In 1995 he received the Pew Scholar Award in Conservation and the Environment and in 2004 the Sustainability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America.

He has co-authored 2 books, edited 7, and written over 180 scientific papers, including 13 in Science and Nature. Carl serves on the editorial board of twelve international journals and shares the position as Editor in Chief of Ecology and Society with Lance Gunderson, since January 2002.

Member of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Carl is elected member of the RoyalSwedishAcademy of Sciences since 2002 and serves on its Environmental Research Committee. He is currently on the Board of the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Scientific Advisory Board of SARAS, the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies.

He has among other things served as Secretary of ISEE for about 5 years, as adviser to the Swedish Government and collaborated with several UN organizations on issues like biodiversity, freshwater management, and sustainable cities. He has also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara, California, the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and boards and committees of research councils and various organizations in Sweden.

Carl has organized several major international conferences and workshops; is in charge of the Stockholm Seminar: Frontiers in Sustainability Science and Policy; has given numerous invited speaker presentations world wide; numerous public lectures, policy seminars and interviews in media. His research has been reported in many newspapers, radio and television, both in Sweden and internationally.