Karl Stahr gained his doctorate from the Technical University Stuttgart in 1972 and his habilitation in Soil Science at the University of Freiburg in 1979. Since 1988 he has been Professor of Soil Science and Petrography at the University of Hohenheim, Institute of Soil Science. Member of Editorial Boards for Catena, Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Geoderma, Trends in Soil Science and Hohenheimer Bodenkundliche Hefte.
Main fields of research are: Soil genesis, Soil mineralogy, Land evaluation, N-cycle, recycling of organic waste. Research projects in forest and agricultural soils of Germany as well as Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, PR China, Somalia, Niger, Benin. Karl Stahr has been actively involved in a range of professional activities serving as: Vice Chairman 1979-1981, 1985-1989 and Chairman 1989-1995 of Comm. VII. German Soil Science Society, Vice Chairman of Comm. VII Intern. Soil Science Soc. 1986-1998. Organizer of several national and international workshops, excursions and congresses. Elected member of many University boards since 1967. Dean of faculty "landscape planning" Technical University of Berlin, 1987/88. President of the German Soil Science Society from 1998 to 2001. Dean of the faculty ‘Plant Production and Landscape Ecology’ from 2000 to 2002. Vice Dean of the faculty ‘Plant Production and Landscape Ecology’ since 2002. Chairman of the special research project Uplands Program 564 since 2005. He has published extensively