Sebastian Homm holds a PhD from the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn where he studied geography, environmental economics and soil sciences. His PhD project focused on urbanization, land use change and socio-economic transformation in peri-urban Chennai.. He was also founding member of the Mountain Research Group that established a cooperative research project with partners from Kunming, China, on biodiversity management and environmental governance in Yunnan province.
His research interests are located in the fields of social geography and development studies with a focus on newly industrialized countries. He is concerned with inclusive urban development, dynamics of land use change and the sustainable management of natural resources.