Wladimir Petrovich Köppen (/ˈkɜːpən/ KUR-pən; German: [ˈkœpn̩]; Russian: Влади́мир Петро́вич Кёппен, romanized: Vladímir Petróvich Kyoppen,[a] IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈkʲɵp(ː)ʲɪn]; 25 September 1846 – 22 June 1940) was a Russian–German geographer, meteorologist, climatologist and botanist.

Köppen's grandfather was one of several German doctors invited to Russia by Empress Catherine II to improve sanitation and was later personal physician to the tsar.

[5] Between 1872 and 1873 Köppen was employed in the Russian meteorological service as an assistant where he helped prepare the daily synoptic weather map.

[6] In 1875, he moved back to Germany and became the chief of the new Division of Marine Meteorology at the German naval observatory (Deutsche Seewarte) based in Hamburg.

In 1924, he and his son-in-law Alfred Wegener published a paper called Die Klimate der Geologischen Vorzeit (The climates of the geological past) providing crucial support to the Milanković theory on ice ages.

[7] Towards the end of his life, Köppen cooperated with the German climatologist Rudolf Geiger to produce a five-volume work, Handbuch der Klimatologie (Handbook of Climatology).

[8] Alongside scientific pursuits, he was actively involved in social questions, devoting much time and energy to such problems of land-use and school reform and nutrition for the underprivileged.