Rolf Sternberg, born in Hannover 1959, studied Geography (1979-1984) and received his first degree (1984) as well as his Ph.D. (1987) from the University of Hannover where he also finished his habilitation in 1994. A first professorship led him to the Department of Geography at the Technical University of Munich (1995-1996). Since April 1996 he is Professor and Head of Department of Economic and Social Geography at the University of Cologne.

His teaching interests are in industrial, economic and urban geography with a focus on regional examples from the large industrialised countries. His research focuses on the consequences of technological change for regional development, which he analyses theoretically as well as empirically in several books and articles. In the recent past a clear research priority were the implications of technology policies at the national, the regional and the local level on regional development (author and co-author, resp., of two books on German science parks 1988 and 1996). In another book (1995, publisher: LIT, 2nd edition 1998) he examines the impact of national technology policies on the development of high-tech regions in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, and France.

Current research projects deal with new firms and start-ups and their regional causes and impacts.

Prof. Sternberg is the leader of the German team within the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), an international research project focussing on the complex relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth.