Born in 1971, he has been Chancellor of the University of Cologne since 1 December 2022.

After completing his A-levels, he studied physics, with economics as a minor, at the University of Oldenburg. During his studies, he was active as a student member of the university’s Academic Senate and spent time abroad at a centre for research into solar energy utilisation in Spain.

After graduating, he worked, amongst other roles, at the Department of Science and Research of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, initially as an adviser to the Senator and later as Head of the President’s Office. In 2002, Gerlof became Head of the Programme-Oriented Funding Unit at the Helmholtz Research Centre DESY. He later moved to the Ministry of Science in North Rhine-Westphalia, before being elected Chancellor of Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences in 2007 and Chancellor of the University of Potsdam in 2013.

Karsten Gerlof is involved in working groups at both federal and state level; for example, from 2011 to 2013 he was spokesperson for the Federal Working Group on Accounting and Controlling for University of Applied Sciences Chancellors, and from 2016 to 2022 he was state spokesperson for university chancellors in Berlin-Brandenburg. In addition to his main role, he works as a lecturer at the Centre for Science Management (ZWM) in Speyer.