Prof. Dr. Karl Stampfer of BOKU University is a globally recognized leader in forest engineering, celebrated for his research in steep-terrain harvesting, his transformation of FORMEC into a premier international forest engineering conference, and his three-decade commitment to mentoring and industry collaboration. Prof. Stampfer earned his master’s degree (Dipl.-Ing.) in Forest Science from BOKU University in 1991, followed by a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Life Sciences in 1996 and his habilitation in Forest Engineering in 2002. He joined BOKU’s Institute of Forest Engineering as a research assistant in 1991, rising through faculty ranks to become Assistant Professor in 2002, Head of the Institute of Forest Engineering in 2004, and Full Professor of Forest Engineering in 2012. He also served as Head of the Department of Forest and Soil Sciences at BOKU from 2007 to 2025 and has held visiting professorships at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2009 and 2023.