Prof. Volker Birke has around 30 years of experience in practical environmental chemistry, particularly in the destruction of hazardous wastes and toxic compounds in the environment. He has experience in remediation of contaminated sites, hazardous waste management, soil and ground water remediation, 12 years as coordinator of the large-scale German R&D cluster RUBIN for the application of permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) to ground water (GW) pollution, 25 years in the development and application of innovative ex situ and in situ remediation technologies to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), for instance, PCBs, PAHs, PFAS in solid and liquid matter such as soils and GW, as well as pharmaceuticals, personal care products and emerging pollutants in sewage .

From 2009 to 2016, he held an extraordinary professorship of chemistry at the faculty of civil and environmental engineering, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

Since 2016, he has joined the University of Wismar, Germany, where he holds a full professorship of chemistry / technical chemistry. He teaches general, physical, technical and environmental chemistry for process and environmental engineers.

Prof. Birke has experience in assessing environmental information and developing effective solutions based on regulatory, economic, technical, social, and legal considerations, furthermore in site investigation, feasibility studies, site assessment, planning and implementation of complex and large-scale remediation projects, and in the application of thermal, chemical, physical, and biological treatment methods to solve environmental issues.
Prof. Birke has participated in interdisciplinary international projects and developed new technology for developing new remedial markets. He provides peer review for government and technical publications. He has been involved in the management of about 50 remedial investigations, remedial designs and clean up of polluted sites nationwide as well as abroad (U.S.A., India, Australia).
He serves as reviewer, technical and scientific consultant and has published about 75 papers and one book focusing on innovative remediation technologies for the 21st century.