Award Winners in chronological Order

• Award winner of the year 1990
• Dr. Angela Jenisch-Anton, born in 1961, and Dr. Hans Hermann Richnow, born in 1956, both studied geology-paleontology at the University of Hamburg. The two scientists received the Annette Barthelt Prize for their publication on hydrothermal petroleum formation in sediments of the Red Sea. In individual deep areas of this sea, petroleum-impregnated sediments and massive sulfides were present, the organic components of which were investigated. Based on results from a 3-year study visit at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, Dr. Jenisch-Anton is currently investigating the possibilities of biodegradation of high-molecular organic substances at the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Marine Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. Dr. Richnow works at the same institute in the fields of environmental and marine chemistry. He has worked as a visiting scientist in England, France and Uruguay. His research focuses on characterizing the transformation of organic pollutants in soils, waters and sediments.
• Dr. Claudia Thomsen, born in 1963, studied Biological Oceanography at the Institute of Oceanography in Kiel. Her diploma thesis from 1989 on the biomass and vertical distribution of planktonic foraminifera of the Northeast Atlantic was awarded the Annette Barthelt Prize. She was able to provide information on the biomass by analyzing amino acids of the unicellular microorganisms. During her doctoral thesis in the Collaborative Research Center 313 of Kiel University, Ms. Thomsen dealt with the tracking of pelagic processes with the help of biochemical components using the example of alkenones. After guest stays at oceanography institutes in Plymouthand Oslo, Ms. Thomsen is currently investigating the regional applicability of geochemical indicators for estimating paleoproductivity at the GEOMAR Research Center in Kiel.
• Award winner of the year 1991
• Dr. Martin Melles, born in 1960, studied geology/paleontology at the University of Göttingen. The Annette Barthelt Prize for Marine Research was awarded to Dr. Melles in 1991 for his dissertation. It aimed at reconstructing Late Quaternary environmental changes at the continental margin of the southern Weddell Sea (Antarctica). In 1992, Dr. Melles took up a position at the newly founded Research Unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute and established a working group there.
• Drs. Stefan Bräger, Jan Meißner, Georg Nehls und Martin Thiel wurden für ihre Arbeiten über die "Bestandserfassung mariner Vögel und Säuger im Wattenmeer und in der Kieler Bucht 1985-1990" ausgezeichnet. Diese Arbeiten umfaßten mehrere Veröffentlichungen, welche die Autoren bereits während ihres Studiums der Biologie an der Christian- Albrechts-Universität Kiel gemeinsam erstellt hatten. Dr. Bräger arbeitet am Marine Mammal Research Program in Texas, USA. Dr. Meißner arbeitet am Institut für Meereskunde Kiel als Gutachter für das Landesamt für Natur und Umwelt des Landes Schleswig-Holstein. Dr. Nehls führt derzeit ein Monitoringprogramm zur Kartierung von Miesmuscheln im Auftrag des Landesamtes für den Nationalpark Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer durch, und Dr. Martin Thiel untersucht das Brutfürsorgeverhalten von Krebstieren an der chilenischen Küste. Die vier Preisträger pflegen weiterhin enge Kontakte.
• Award winner of the year 1992
• Prof. Dr. Angelika Brandt, born in 1961, studied education and conducted her dissertation at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. Her dissertation on the colonization history of Antarctica using the example of the Isopoda against the background of historical geology, paleontology and climatology was awarded the Annette Barthelt Prize. Since 1995, Ms. Brandt has been a university professor for "Special Zoology" at the Zoological Institute and Museum of the University of Hamburg.
• Dr. Gerhard Schmiedl, born in 1965, studied geology and paleontology at the University of Würzburg. His award-winning diploma thesis of 1991 on the reconstruction of Quaternary depositional processes in the Antarctic deep sea was carried out on a 14 m sediment core. In 1994, Mr. Schmiedl received his PhD from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven and subsequently worked as a research associate at the University of Tübingen. He is currently spending a year at Ohio State University in Columbus, USA, on a postdoctoral fellowship.
• Award winner of the year 1993
• Dr. Andrea Detmer, born in 1964, studied biology in Bonn and Kiel until 1992 and applied the method of flow cytometry, which originated in medicine, to biological oceanography as part of her diploma thesis, which received an award from the Annette Barthelt Foundation. Andrea Detmer received her PhD in biological oceanography from the Institute of Oceanography, Kiel, in early 1995. She has spent time as a visiting scientist in Australia at Murdoch University, Perth, and at the University of Adelaide, and in the USA at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego. In 1996 and 1997 she worked as a science officer at the German Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology, and since 1998 she has been working as a science officer at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
• Dr. Sebastian Gerland, born in 1965, studied geophysics at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He then worked on the non-destructive investigation of physical properties of marine sediments as part of his dissertation at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. He received his PhD in 1993 in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Bremen. His doctoral thesis on the determination of the density of marine sediments was awarded the Annette Barthelt Prize. From 1993 to 1996, Sebastian Gerland continued his work at the Alfred Wegener Institute, working on the physical properties of ice. Under an EU grant, he was able to continue research on ice, now concerning mechanical properties, at University College in London, England. Since 1997 he has been working at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø on the reflectivity (albedo) of snow and sea ice on Spitsbergen.
• Dr. Christopher Ned Wold received the Annette Barthelt Prize for his dissertation prepared at GEOMAR, Kiel, and has been working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA, since 1997.
• Award winner of the year 1994
• Dr. Beate Strehlow, born in 1963, studied marine ecology at the University of Rostock and received her Ph.D. in 1993. Her award-winning doctoral thesis dealt with studies on eels and eel larvae from the North Atlantic. Based on the results of this taxonomically and ecologically oriented work, she investigated material on eels and eel larvae from the Biological Institute Helgoland in the following 5 years. The focus here was on the question of the extent to which morphological-meristic parameters can be supplemented by enzymatic and genetic characteristics in the classification of fish. The research material for the award-winning work originated from eight research expeditions in the years 1982 to 1989. The evaluation of the data formed important arguments against existing theses on the larval drift of eels in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Dr. Bettina Bischof, born in 1965, carried out her main studies in biology at the University of Bremen. Her award-winning diploma thesis, prepared at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, focused on the temperature requirements for growth, reproduction and survival of Greenland algal species. In her dissertation, submitted in 1996, Ms. Bischoff-Bäsmann focused on the temperature requirements and biogeography of large marine algae from different latitudes. The temperature requirements of the species were related to the respective paleoclimatic history and showed the large time periods required for a genetically fixed change in the specific temperature requirements of an algal species. Ms. Bischoff-Bäsmann has been working for the BAYER group since 1997.
• Award winner of the year 1995
• Dr. Philip Bethge, born 1967, studied Biological Oceanography at the University of Kiel and is currently working on his dissertation on the platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus at the University in Tasmania/Australia. The thesis deals with the energy balance and diving physiology of the platypus. At the same time, Mr. Bethge works as a freelance science journalist for German media with publications in " Spiegel", "Kosmos" and "Geo". His award-winning diploma thesis focused on the diving behavior and energy balance of breeding pygmy penguins in Tasmania, Australia, using an 18 m water channel.
• Dr. Thorsten Reusch, born 1965, studied Biological Oceanography at the University of Kiel. After receiving his PhD in Kiel in 1994, he spent two years at San Diego State University, USA, working on the effects of introduced organisms on native seagrass populations. He is currently a Marie Curie fellow at the University of Groningen, developing molecular DNA markers to study site adaptation of seagrass populations. As part of his award-winning dissertation, Mr. Reusch conducted field experiments as a research diver on interactions between seagrass beds and mussel beds in the western Baltic Sea. The influence of starfish and shore crabs on mussel dispersal was also investigated.
• Solveig Bartels, born in 1970, completed her award-winning diploma thesis at the University of Rostock.
• Award winner of the year 1996
• Dr. Jochen Knies, born 1969, studied geology at the University of Giessen. His diploma thesis, which was awarded the Annette Barthelt Prize, dealt with Late Quaternary sedimentation on the continental slope northwest of Spitsbergen. His investigations made clear that the northernmost branch of the Gulf Stream also caused seasonal ice-free conditions in the European Arctic Ocean during the last ice age and thus directly contributed as a source of moisture to the increased formation of inland ice masses in Europe. Since completing his PhD at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven in 1998, Mr Knies has been living in Norway and working on sediments of the European Arctic Ocean in the Ocean Drilling Priority Programme.
• Award winner of the year 1997
• Dr Markus Harder, born in 1965, studied physics at the University of Bremen and has been working as a scientific assistant at the Institute of Oceanography in Kiel since 1996. His research focuses on computer models of the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean to study climate variability in the North Atlantic and polar regions. His award-winning doctoral thesis was done at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. In this work, the roughness and age of sea ice were introduced as additional variables in a computer model. Mr Harder intends to complete his habilitation at Kiel University.
• Dr. Boris Worm, born in 1969, studied biological oceanography at the Institute of Oceanography in Kiel until 1995. He conducted his award-winning diploma thesis at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. There he investigated the zonation of marine algae in the lower intertidal zone. He is currently completing a doctoral thesis in Kiel on the conservation and threats to the diversity and function of marine communities. The aim is to apply new concepts of ecological research to the analysis and solution of increasing environmental problems worldwide.
• Award winner of the year 1998
• Dr. Uta Brathauer, born in 1967, studied geology and palaeontology at the University of Bremen and, after graduating in 1992, moved to the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, where she worked on her dissertation until 1996. During this time she had the opportunity to take part in two expeditions with the German research vessel Polarstern and the French research vessel Marion Dufresne. A DAAD scholarship enabled a research stay at Oregon State University. In her award-winning doctoral thesis, Ms Brathauer studied the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and was able to reconstruct climatic changes over the last 300,000 years from sediment deposits. She has been working at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam since 1998 and is now focusing on the climate history of the last 10,000 years using lake sediments in the West Eifel.
• Award winner of the year 1999
• Thomas Mock, born in 1971, studied Biological Oceanography at the Institute of Oceanography, Kiel, and completed his diploma thesis, submitted and awarded a prize in 1998, at the Institute of Polar Ecology, Kiel University. His ecological studies on the spring development of Arctic sea ice communities have already been presented at congresses and published in a scientific journal.
• Dr. Claudia Willamowski, born in 1967, studied chemistry at Kiel University and completed her dissertation at GEOMAR in Kiel from 1994 to 1998. Her dissertation on the distribution pattern of trace metals in the glacial North Atlantic to reconstruct the nutrient balance in benthic foraminifera was awarded the Annette Barthelt Prize. Ms Willamowski is currently working at CEREGE in Aix-Marseille.
• Award winner of the year 2000
• Dr. Katrin Meissner, born in 1971, studied engineering and physical oceanography in France. Her doctoral thesis, which was awarded the Annette Barthelt Prize, investigated the transition from an interglacial to a glacial as well as the variability of the thermohaline circulation in today's climate with a climate computational model. Since her doctorate in 1999 at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Ms Meissner has been working at the University of Victoria in Canada.
• Birgit Obermüller, studied biological oceanography. She wrote her diploma thesis at the "Institute of Polar Ecology". The title: "Characterisation of Arctic mesozooplankton communities during a winter/spring transition period". In her award-winning work, she successfully applied, among other things, a biochemical method developed in the Department of Fisheries Biology at the Institute of Oceanography to classify the nutritional status of fish larvae on copepods for the first time. She is currently working at the Alfred Wegener Institute in the Benthos Working Group....
• Award winner of the year 2001
• Dr. Katrin Linse, born in 1970, studied zoology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and moved to the Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Hamburg, after graduating in 1996. In her award-winning doctoral thesis, Ms Linse focused on the Magellanic molluscs (bivalves and gastropods) and their biogeographical relationships to the Antarctic Ocean. Since 2000, she has been working at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge and now focuses on the origin and speciation rates of marine biodiversity in Antarctica, using bivalves as an example. In 2002, Ms Linse took over the leadership of the BAS core research project "Antarctic Marine Biodiversity: A Historical Perspective", which investigates the past, present and future of Antarctic marine biodiversity. She is currently involved in planning the future research priorities of the British Antarctic Survey.
• Award winner of the year 2002
• Dr. Walter Geibert, born in 1971, studied physical geography in Trier with a focus on geology and hydrology in the earth sciences. His current work at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven focuses on the application of natural radionuclides as tracers for biogeochemical processes in the ocean. In the award-winning dissertation, he demonstrated the suitability of the rare element actinium for drawing conclusions about the circulation of deep water in the Southern Ocean.
• Award winner of the year 2003
• Dr. Mollenhauer did her thesis in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Bremen under the supervision of Prof. Dr G. Wefer. In her study, Ms Mollenhauer deals with sedimentation processes and sediment balances of organic matter in Late Quaternary sediments from the South Atlantic against the background of the global carbon cycle. The results of the dissertation show that a variety of processes take place between the formation of organic matter and its deposition in marine sediments, some of which can last several thousand years.
• Dr. Hannes Baumann conducted his work at the Institute of Oceanography at Kiel University. Through a cooperation between the Institute of Oceanography and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, Mr Baumann was able to build up a comprehensive set of fisheries biology field data in Canada. The work is based on modern, temporally and spatially small-scale approaches to study growth patterns of fish larvae and provides new results in the field of selective mortality and the influence of environmental parameters.
• Award winner of the year 2004
• Dr. Gussone conducted his thesis at the GEOMAR Research Centre for Marine Geosciences at Kiel University under the supervision of Prof. Dr. A. Eisenhauer. In his doctoral thesis, he investigated the extent to which measurements of Ca-isotopes in marine carbonates are suitable for determining the water temperature of the paleo-ocean. In addition to the O-isotope determination, which is well established in science, the analyses carried out constitute a completely innovative method that considerably expands the current state of knowledge on Ca-isotope geochemistry.
• Mr. Daniel Winkelmann graduated as a geologist and completed his work at the Faculty of Geosciences, Geophysics and Mining at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg under the supervision of Dr. J. Knies. His investigations are based on the fine-scale analysis of profiles of the marine surface sediment of the continental shelf in the polar North Atlantic. The sediment structure functions as a climate archive and allows far-reaching interpretations about the development of our climate system.
• Award winner of the year 2005
• The paleo-oceanographer Dr. Frank Kösters from Kiel wrote his doctoral thesis "Modelling the Denmark Strait Overflow during the last interglacial cycle" in the research group Ocean Passages at the Institute for Geosciences at Kiel University in the field of paleo-oceanography. He dealt with the Northeast Atlantic, more precisely with the Denmark Strait, which lies between Iceland and Greenland. This is the area of the largest southward deep water transport from the Greenland Sea, which is the origin of the ventilation of the world ocean. Kösters' investigations focused on the overflow of the Denmark Strait under present-day conditions and those of the last ice age, because the amount of southward flowing deep water depends strongly on the respective climatic conditions. Kösters' results have significantly improved the understanding of the oceanic role in long-term climate fluctuations.
• The geophysicist Dr. Andrea Hampel from Bern (Switzerland) receives the prize for her doctoral thesis "Subduction of the Nazca Ridge at the Peruvian margin: Insights from geophysical data, analogue and numerical modelling". In the Southeast Pacific, she conducted geoscientific investigations on the tectonic "migration" of the submarine Nazca Ridge, which collides with the continental plate off the Peruvian coast. The collision zone is characterised by frequently occurring earthquakes and thus means a great potential danger for the population living there. Hampel was on site several times with the German research vessel SONNE. With the help of computer simulations, she was able to prove that the speed at which the Nazca Ridge dives under the southern Peruvian mainland is much slower than previously assumed. Hampel did her work at the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam, but now works at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
• The award ceremony was closed with a lecture by Prof. Dullo about scientific work on board research vessels. The lecture also gave a very nice insight into the beauty and biodiversity of cold-water coral reefs. In this context, however, frightening pictures of the destruction of these unique ecosystems by modern trawling were also shown; there is no more vivid way to convey how important the contributions of marine research are to the protection and conservation of marine biodiversity.
• Award winner of the year 2006
• Dr. Vanessa Stelzenmüller received the prize for her doctoral thesis " Opportunities and limitations of geostatistical methods in fisheries science: Analysis of spatial and temporal variability of fish populations". In her award-winning work, Ms Stelzenmüller examined catch data of bottom-dwelling fish in the North Sea. By coupling these extensive data sets with state-of-the-art statistical methods and models, she succeeded in gaining a completely new insight into the distribution patterns of these economically important fish and thus made an essential contribution to current research on valuable marine stocks, a major concern of current fisheries biology. Ms Stelzenmüller is also a trained bank clerk and subsequently devoted herself to studying natural sciences. She completed her doctoral thesis at the University of Oldenburg in cooperation with the Federal Research Centre for Fisheries in Hamburg. She was also supported by a doctoral scholarship from the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), which further documents the excellence of her work.
• Award winner of the year 2007
• Gunnar Voet's (diploma) thesis is about North Atlantic deep water currents in the Denmark Strait, which is located between Iceland and Greenland. In the Denmark Strait, cold and heavy water from the European North Sea flows southwards and sinks to great depths. Gunnar Voet has studied the influence of certain water eddies on the deep water flowing southwards here with the help of observational data and computer models. This deep water is part of the global overturning movement, in which cold water in the deep sea flows southwards and warm surface water (e.g. due to the Gulf Stream / North Atlantic Current) is transported northwards as compensation. Mr Voet's work is therefore also a contribution to research into an important component of our climate system.
• The second prize winner, Dr. Helge Niemann, worked on mud volcanoes and gas springs on the seabed that release methane, which is, however, converted on site by special bacteria through the process of anaerobic methane oxidation. He was able to detect these special communities both in coastal waters and in the deep sea. As biological "hot spots", they are concentrated in narrowly defined locations. Their distribution and activity is determined by the path of methane in the seabed. Thanks to these bacteria, methane is prevented from reaching the atmosphere, where it acts as a very powerful greenhouse gas. Dr Niemann was unfortunately unable to receive his award in person as he was on a research trip.
• Award winner of the year 2008
• Dr. Sylvia Stegmann, born on 4. August 1977, submitted her dissertation "Design of a free-fall penetrometer for geotechnical characterisation of saturated sediments and its geological application" to the University of Bremen in the Department of Geosciences. Ms Stegmann worked on an interdisciplinary topic combining engineering sciences and basic marine-geological research. In her dissertation, she developed a so-called free-fall penetrometer, a device for measuring geotechnical parameters in near-surface sediments, and applied it in various fields. This work has been published in several prestigious international journals.
• Mr Marian Yung-An Hu, born on 24 June 1981, did his diploma thesis in Marine Zoology at the University of Bremen with the title "Studies on the feeding physiology of the hydrothermal vent crab Xenograpsus testudinatus (Decapoda, Brachyura)". Mr Hu was concerned with the study of the adaptation of hydrothermal crabs to their habitat in a tropical shallow water area. He is currently working on his dissertation in the Ocean Acidification working group (Prof. Frank Melzner) at IFM-GEOMAR as part of the Kiel Cluster of Excellence "The Future Ocean".
• After the presentation of the award-winning research work by the prize winners, Dr. Helge Niemann from the Institute of Environmental Geosciences at the University of Basel gave a lecture at the Marine Science Colloquium on the topic: "Rates and signatures of methane turnover in sediments of continental margins". Dr Niemann was a prize winner in 2007, but was unable to receive his award personally in 2007 as he was on a research trip.
• Award winner of the year 2009
• Dr. Esther Arning, born on 30 July 1980, completed her dissertation on "Phosphogenesis in coastal upwelling systems - bacterially-induced phosphorite formation" at the Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at the University of Bremen. Among other things, Ms Arning examined sediment samples from the coastal upwelling areas off Namibia, Peru and Chile. Using molecular biomarkers, she was able to show that sulphate-reducing and sulphide-oxidising bacteria play a decisive role in phosphorite formation. This geobiological approach has helped her to achieve results that can be considered groundbreaking for the understanding of phosphate formation in the ocean. She is now a PostDoc at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.
• Dr. Florian Leese, born on 18 July 1978, completed his dissertation entitled "The recent evolutionary history of Antarctic and Subantarctic benthic isopods: Development and Analysis of fast evolving molecular markers" at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. The central topic of the thesis deals with the evolution of the biodiversity of animals living on the seabed of the Southern Ocean, especially marine isopods. In the process, Mr Leese developed new molecular biological methods in which so-called microsatellites, i.e. non-coding DNA sequences, are examined for genetic analysis. Mr Leese is currently employed at the Chair of "Evolutionary Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals" at the Ruhr University Bochum.
• Following the award ceremony and the presentation of the prize-winning work, Prof. Dr. Anton Eisenhauer (IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel) gave the keynote lecture with the topic: "Key experiments on the anamnesis of the Earth".
• Award winner of the year 2010
• Dr. Stefanie Kaiser, born on 16. March 1978, submitted her dissertation "Scale and patterns in Southern Ocean Biodiversity, using Isopoda (Crustacea, Malacostraca) as a model" to the University of Hamburg in the Department of Biology. The work was carried out at the Zoological Museum of the University of Hamburg and supervised by Prof. Dr. Angelika Brandt and Prof. Dr. Pedro Martinez Arbizu. Ms Kaiser's dissertation deals with the isopods of the Southern Ocean as a model and is dedicated to the question of which regularities for biodiversity and biogeography can be found in the benthos of Antarctica. A major result of her work concerns the importance of geographic scale effects, which must naturally have an impact when extrapolating spatially limited data. She is now employed as a PostDoc at the Zoological Museum in Hamburg.
• Dr. Lutz Ahrens, born on 10. October 1980, wrote his dissertation at GKSS in Geesthacht entitled "Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds in the Marine Environment - Investigations on their Distribution in Surface Water and Temporal Trends in Harbour Seals (Phoca vitulina)". The thesis was supervised by Prof. Ralf Ebinghaus. Mr. Ahrens worked on the occurrence of polyfluorinated organic compounds in the sea. He analysed water samples as well as tissue samples from preserved seals. His results are also of great importance with regard to the exposure pathways of these pollutants with regard to humans. Mr Ahrens is currently on a post-doctoral fellowship with the NSERC (National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) in Toronto, Canada.
• Award winner of the year 2011
• Dr. Ilse van Opzeeland, born 25. December 1979, submitted her dissertation "Acoustic ecology of marine mammals" to the University of Bremen in the Department of Biology. The work was carried out at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. Ms Opzeeland's dissertation deals with the evaluation and interpretation of acoustic data from the Southern Ocean with regard to the acoustic signals of marine mammals. With her very detailed data analysis, she contributes significantly to classifying the acoustic signals emitted by marine mammals and thus makes an important contribution to learning more about the biology of marine mammals in Arctic regions. She is now a PostDoc in the Ocean Acoustics Laboratory at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.
• Dr. Florian Scholz, born on 05. February 1980, completed his dissertation at IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel with the title "Pore water expulsion at submarine cold seeps: geochemical evidence for short-cuts between crust, sediments and ocean". Mr Scholz studied the release of pore waters on the seabed by cold seeps in the Gulf of Cadiz. He investigated their chemical and isotopic composition in order to draw conclusions about the origin of the pore waters and their significance for the material balance in the ocean. Mr Scholz is currently a PostDoc in the Collaborative Research Centre 574 and 754 at IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel.
• Award winner of the year 2012
• Dr. Maike Kramer, born 30. June 1982, submitted her dissertation "The role of sympagic meiofauna in Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice food webs" to the Department of Biology at Kiel University. The work was carried out at the Institute of Polar Ecology in Kiel and supervised by PD Dr. I. Werner (IPÖ) and Prof. Dr. U. Sommer (GEOMAR). Ms Kramer's dissertation deals with the importance of the meiofauna within the food web in the brine channels in the sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic. There have been few studies in this area so far. In her work, she found that sea ice food webs are much more complex than previously thought. In addition, the meiofauna seems to show a relatively large feeding pressure, especially in the predatory food acquisition. Ms Kramer is now employed as a research assistant at the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in the area of marine and coastal nature conservation.
• Dr. Peter Holtermann, born on 10. September 1980, submitted his dissertation entitled "The Baltic Sea Tracer Release Experiment: Mixing Processes in the Gotland Basin" to the University of Rostock. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. H. Burchard and Dr. L. Umlauf. He investigated the mixing processes in the Gotland Basin with the help of tracers, among other things. He found out that the basin-wide mixing is dominated by the mixing processes at the basin edge. Mr Holtermann is currently a PostDoc at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde.
• Award winner of the year 2013
• Dr. Judith Hauck, born 15. December 1981, submitted her dissertation "Processes in the Southern Ocean carbon cycle: Dissolution of carbonate sediments and inter-annual variability of carbon fluxes" to the University of Bremen in the Department of Biology. The work was carried out at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and supervised by Prof. D.A. Wolf-Gladrow and Prof. B. Schneider. Ms Hauck's dissertation deals with the importance of carbon flux on the Antarctic shelf. She investigated the effect of atmospheric CO2 increase on CO2 absorption by the Southern Ocean and possible feedbacks with the shelf sediments. Ms Hauck is now a PostDoc at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.
• Dr. Axel Möller, born on 25. April 1984, submitted his dissertation entitled "Alternative Halogenated Flame Retardants versus PBDEs in the Global Marine Environment - Occurrence, Distribution and Long-Range Atmospheric Transport towards the Polar Regions" to the University of Lüneburg. The work was submitted by PD. Dr. R. Ebinghaus and Prof. W. Ruck. Mr Möller worked on halogenated flame retardants in the marine atmosphere and seawater. He has investigated the global occurrence, distribution and transport pathways of different alternatives of flame retardants. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which used to be widely used, are difficult to degrade and harmful to humans and the environment, making this work very important.
• Award winner of the year 2014
• Dr. Andrea Frommel, born on 10. November 1982, submitted her dissertation "Effects of ocean acidification on the growth and development of cod larvae (Gadus morhua)" to the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel in the Department of Biology. The work was carried out at GEOMAR and supervised by Prof Dr T. Reusch and Prof Dr J. Havenhand (University of Götheburg). Ms Frommel's dissertation is dedicated to the possible biological consequences of ocean acidification on the juvenile stages of Norwegian and Baltic cod. For Norwegian cod, she found that the phase from older larvae to juvenile fish is particularly sensitive to CO2, showing for the first time that ocean acidification is not only a problem for calcifying invertebrates. Ms Frommel works as a PostDoc at Götheburg University in the Sven Lovén Center Tjärnö.
• Dr. Kathrin Wuttig, born on 03. March 1983, also submitted her dissertation entitled "Manganese biogeochemistry in the sunlit ocean" to the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel in the Department of Chemistry. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. P. Croot and Prof. Dr. A. Körtzinger. Ms Wuttig studied the distribution, sources and sinks as well as the reaction mechanisms and the cycle of the biologically essential micronutrient manganese (Mn) in the eastern tropical Atlantic and in a mesocosm experiment in the Mediterranean Sea. Central to these investigations are the very sophisticated sampling and analysis methods, whereby she has further developed and optimised established methods for her purposes. Her research results make an important contribution to understanding biogeochemical cycles and the effect of changing environmental conditions. Ms Wuttig currently holds a PostDoc position in Chemical Oceanography at GEOMAR.
• Ms Sarah Schnurr, born on 30. July 1984, completed her Master of Science in Marine Ecosystem and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Hamburg. Her master thesis "Distribution of selected species of Munnopsidae Lilljeborg, 1864 (Crustacea, Isopoda Asellota) around Iceland linked to long-term oceanographic data" was supervised by Prof. A. Brandt and Prof. D Quadfasel. Sarah Schnurr analysed the diversity, species composition and species distribution of selected genera of the Munnopsidae Lilljeborg, 1864 (typical group of deep-sea isopods) from the waters around Iceland. In doing so, she fed data from classical taxonomy and oceanographic data into a model and analysed and assessed the resulting findings. Ms Schnurr is employed as a research associate at the DZMB in Hamburg.
• Award winner of the year 2015
• Dr. Agnes Weiner, born on 06.09.1984, submitted her doctoral thesis "Genetic diversity, biogeography and the morpho-genetic relationship in extant planktonic foraminifera" to the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bremen. The work was carried out at the University of Tübingen and MARUM in Bremen and supervised by Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera. Ms Weiner worked on the diversity, distribution and evolution of planktonic foraminifera. Foraminifera are unicellular animal organisms that form a calcareous shell. Using molecular genetic studies, she has shown that some species are cryptic species that do not differ morphologically but do differ genetically, while other species are very conservative and remain unchanged over long geographical distances and depths. She has also demonstrated that speciation can occur over the narrowest geographic space via depth zonation, e.g. within the water column in the upper pelagic and deep sea. Ms Weiner is currently a research associate at MARUM, University of Bremen.
• Ms Sinikka Lennartz, born 26.06.1987, submitted her master thesis "Time Series Analysis and Development of a 1D Box Model to Simulate Trace Gas Concentrations at the Time Series Station Boknis Eck, Baltic Sea" to the Technical University of Braunschweig. The work was carried out at GEOMAR in Kiel and supervised by Prof. Dr. Herrmann Bange (GEOMAR) and Prof. Dr. H. Biester (TU Braunschweig). Ms Lennartz has statistically evaluated long-term trends at the time series station Boknis Eck (southwestern Baltic Sea) in the period 1957-2013. She also created a model to simulate the trace gas concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide in surface water. According to this, there are many indications that the trace gases methane and nitrous oxide could be increasingly emitted. Ms Lennartz is employed as a doctoral student at GEOMAR Kiel.
• Award winner of the year 2016
• Dr. Arjun Chennu, born in India in 1985, completed his PhD in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Bremen with the thesis "Mapping the microscale variability of microphytobenthos" at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen. He was supervised by Dr. L. Polerecky and Prof. Dr. A. Boetius. The microphytobenthos is of great ecological importance in terms of primary production and as a food source for marine animals, among other things. Mr Chennu has redesigned and adapted a hyperspectral imaging system, previously used only in the terrestrial realm, for the habitat of the microphytobenthos, which required a number of technological developments. This has enabled him for the first time to quantify the small-scale spatial heterogeneity of the microphytobenthos and its productivity. Mr Chennu is currently a research associate at the MPI for Marine Microbiology in Bremen.
• Dr. Isabel Sauermilch, born 17.01.1990, submitted her Master's thesis "An insight into the sedimentary history of the Lomonosov Ridge, Arctic Ocean" to the University of Bremen in the Department of Earth Sciences. The work was carried out at the AWI in Bremerhaven and supervised by Prof. Dr. Wilfried Jokat (AWI). Ms Sauermilch worked on the sedimentary system of the Lomonosov Ridge, which is considered a representative area for the Arctic Ocean. In doing so, she was able to provide insight into deeper structures of the ridge for the first time. She has presented and interpreted her extensive data set in an impressive manner. Ms Sauermilch has completed a PhD at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) in Hobart, Australia.
• Award winner of the year 2017
• Dr. Ricarda Pietsch from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, received this year's scientific award for her dissertation "The Manihiki Plateau - Magmatic and tectonic evolution of a Large Igneous Province through time", which she completed at the University of Bremen in the Department of Earth Sciences. The work was carried out at the AWI in Bremerhaven and supervised by Dr Gabriele Uenzelmann-Neben (AWI). Dr. Pietsch used new, high-resolution, multi-channel reflection seismic data to analyse the course of the volcanic formation phases of the Manihiki Plateau in the Southwest Pacific, thus making a fundamental contribution to the evolution of oceanic volcanic fields.
• Dr. Damian Arévalo-Martínez from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel for his dissertation "Nitrous oxide distribution and emissions from the tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans". The Colombian-born marine chemist completed his doctorate in the Department of Chemical Oceanography at Kiel University and was supervised by Prof. Dr. Hermann Bange (GEOMAR). For his dissertation, Dr Arévalo-Martínez measured the distribution and emissions of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, in tropical marine regions. To do this, he further developed an online system and thus achieved a very high level of accuracy. The size of the data sets and their quality allow good estimates of nitrous oxide fluxes from the sea into the atmosphere, which provides important insights for global climate models.
• Award winner of the year 2018
• Dr. Florian Schütte, born 22.10.1986, completed his doctoral thesis "Characteristics and impact of mesoscale eddies in the eastern tropical North Atlantic" in Kiel at GEOMAR under Prof. Dr P. Brandt in 2016. His work provides an important contribution to the understanding of the role of eddies in the tropical Northeast Atlantic. Eddies can transport temperature, salinity and oxygen signals over long distances, but they also form closed systems in which a special biogeochemical environment and hydrgraphy can develop over several months. Florian Schütte was able to demonstrate this for the first time in his doctoral thesis. Mr Schütte is still employed as a PostDoc at GEOMAR.
• Dr. Greta Reintjes, born on 22.09.1989, completed her doctoral thesis "Taxonomic and functional analysis of marine microbial polysaccharide utilisation" in Bremen at the Max Planck Institute for Microbiology under Prof. Dr. R. Amann. As part of her work in microbiology, she further developed central counting and sequencing methods that enabled an automated and timely analysis of microbial diversity. She was also able to discover an alternative mechanism for the polysaccharide utilisation of marine bacteria, which has far-reaching implications for understanding the role of these bacteria in the global carbon cycle. Ms Reintjes currently holds a postdoctoral position at the MPI Bremen.
• Mr Tobias Vonnahme, born 23.03.1990, conducted his Master's thesis "Microbial diversity and function of deep sea manganese nodule ecosystems" at the Max Planck Institute for Microbiology in Bremen under Prof. Dr A. Boetius. He examined sediment samples from the Peru Basin for their sediment and various microbiological properties. The sediment samples came from areas where disturbances (such as manganese nodule mining) had taken place and from those that were undisturbed. He was able to determine that even after 26 years, the microbial ecosystem was very different from that of undisturbed areas. Mr Vonnahme is now a PhD student at Norway's Arctic University in Tromsø (UiT).
• Award winner of the year 2019
• Dr. Anastasia Zhuravleva, born on 20.09.1988, completed her doctoral thesis "Palaeoceanographic and climatic teleconnections between the subarctic and subtropical North Atlantic during the last interglacial (MIS 5e)" as part of the cooperation between the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, the Alfred Wegner Institute and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Marine Sciences under Prof. Dr. M. Frank. In her work, she investigated the climatic conditions during the last warm period with higher temperatures than today, in the North Atlantic. These data sets contribute significantly to an improved understanding of future climate scenarios and will also lead to enhanced insights in climate modelling. Currently, Ms Zhuravleva is a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.
• Ms Miriam Seifert, born 26.02.1993, carried out her Master's thesis "Carbon cycling in an Arctic fjord (Scoresby Sund, East Greenland) with regard to the influence of glacial meltwater discharge" at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven under the supervision of Dr M. Iversen (MARUM). She investigated the influence of meltwater on the carbon cycle in the East Greenland Scoresby Fjord, the largest fjord system on Earth. Ms Seifert has presented the extremely complex relationships very clearly and comprehensively. She is able to prove that the CO2 uptake by primary production in the meltwater area was lower than outside, but that more of this carbon bound by the phytoplankton could be exported due to the influence of the silt particles. Ms Seifert is now a PhD student at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.
• Award winner of the year 2020
• Dr. Sophie Paul, born on 05.08.1990, completed her doctoral thesis "Biogeochemistry of Pacific deep-sea sediments and potential impacts of deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining" at the Jacobs University in Bremen under Prof. Dr. Andrea Koschinsky. In her work, she analysed sediment cores from the eastern Pacific Ocean with regard to trace elements, e.g. rare earths, and found your hardly known heterogeneity. This is important, among other things, for environmental studies in the context of possible future mining of manganese nodules. Her recommendations for action in this regard can be incorporated into the regulations for the mining of mineral resources in the deep sea of the Seabed Authority ISA. Ms Paul is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Jacobs University in Bremen.
• Ms Talisa Döring, born on 08.05.1993, wrote her Master's thesis "Transplantation of the microbiome from heat-tolerant to heat-sensitive corals - a new tool for building coral resilience to bleaching?" at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ute Hentschel-Humeida and Dr. Anna Roik. She conducted her experiments with corals independently at a field station in Thailand. In the process, Ms Döring tested the use of probiotics, i.e. the administration of live bacteria to promote health, in corals, which is a very topical and important issue worldwide in view of the coral bleaching that is already taking place. Ms Döring is now a PhD student at the University in Melbourne, Australia.
• Award winner of the year 2021
• Dr. Alexander Rösner, born on 14.11.1988, completed his doctoral thesis "Nankai Trough fault slip behaviour analysed in-situ and in shear experiments" at MARUM at the University of Bremen under Prof. Dr. Achim Kopf. He dealt with the very important topic of fault slip behaviour at subduction zones using the Nankai subduction zone off Japan as an example. The dissertation provides important insights into the hazard emanating from the Nankai subduction zone, e.g. in the form of a tsunami. Mr Rösner is currently a postdoctoral researcher at MARUM in Bremen.
• Ms Carolin Uhlir, born 28.01.1993, wrote her Master's thesis "Morphological and molecular diversity of Cumacea (Crustacea; Peracarida) within Northern European Ocean ecoregions" at the university under the supervision of Prof. Ralf Thiel and Dr. Saskia Brix. Her work provides an insight into the morphological and genetic diversity of the Cumacea (small, bottom-dwelling crustaceans) in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. Particularly noteworthy is that she has combined traditional taxonomy based on morphological traits with modern molecular methods. In addition, her data form an important biogeographical basis, on the basis of which long-term changes due to ocean warming, for example, can be recognised.
• Award winner of the year 2022
• Dr. Stefanie Haase, born 24.03.1994, completed her doctoral thesis "Interlinked patterns in movements and otolith formation of cod (Gadus morhua) in the southern Baltic Sea " at the Thünen Institute in Rostock and the University of Hamburg under Prof. Dr. A. Temming and Dr. U. Krumme. In her dissertation, she achieved a better understanding of the migratory behaviour of these fish, their age determination and the mixing of cod stocks in the Arkona Basin by tagging cod and adapting and validating a geolocation method. This information is of great value for the research field of Baltic cod biology and future successful stock management of this fishery. Currently, Ms Haase is employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Thünen Institute in Rostock.
• Ms Lena Holtmanns, born 23.11.1994, wrote her Master's thesis "Analysis of the spatial distribution of seabirds, fish and plankton in the German bight" at the University of Hamburg under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Chr. Möllmann and Dr. K. Borkenhagen. Ms Holtmanns has studied four seabird species in the German Bight. She correlated her counts of these bird species with data on hydrography and the occurrence of plankton and fish. To do this, she used extensive statistical analyses and found a suitable model to represent these relationships.
• Award winner of the year 2023
• In her doctoral thesis, Dr. Cora Hörstmann investigated microbial activity and biodiversity in different marine areas. The title of her thesis is "Marine microbes on the map: Defining spatial scales of functional microbial biogeography in the ocean." For this purpose, she conducted genetic studies in surface waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as well as in Arctic and subarctic fjords. Through her research, Dr. Cora Hörstmann has been able to better resolve marine ecosystem boundaries or, in some cases, make them visible in the first place based on changes in microbial species composition. She was supervised by Professor Dr. Anya Waite at Dalhousie University, Canada, and Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Dr. Uwe John at AWI and Professor Dr. Matthias Ullrich at Jacobs University Bremen. The marine researcher volunteers for international and interdisciplinary cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Marine Research for Sustainable Development and is currently working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO) in France.
• Anna Christina Hans' master's thesis focused on ocean-atmosphere interactions and their effects on the diurnal cycle in the upper 15 meters of the ocean. The thesis entitled "Diurnal cycle of near-surface shear, stratification and mixing in the equatorial Atlantic" was supervised at GEOMAR by Professor Dr. Peter Brandt and Professor Dr. Martin Claus. Anna Christina Hans obtained her data during a research cruise to the equatorial Atlantic. There she deployed various drifters that measure ocean currents. Together with wind data and other en route measurements obtained during the research cruise, she was able to decipher the diurnal cycle of temperature, stratification, current shear and mixing at the equator. Thus, she was able to show: The diurnal cycle in the uppermost meter of the ocean and the resulting interaction between current and wind have a major impact on the input of wind energy into the ocean. After her master thesis, Anna Christina Hans spent several months as a visiting researcher at the Laboratory for Studies in Geophysics and Spatial Oceanography, (LEGOS IRD), Toulouse in France and plans to start a PhD thesis at GEOMAR.
• Award winner of the year 2024
• Dr. Jenna Balaguer, born on 9 November 1993, completed her dissertation entitled "Iron and Manganese Co-Limitation - A potential driver of Southern Ocean Phytoplankton ecology" at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven and the University of Bremen. In her doctoral thesis, Jenna Balaguer investigated the co-limitation of iron and manganese in relation to phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean under the supervision of Dr. Scarlett Trimborn (AWI). To this end, she conducted various culture experiments with dominant species of the Antarctic Ocean during and after the expedition PS124 with the research vessel POLARSTERN in 2021. Such experiments with trace metals such as iron and manganese are very challenging. She was able to determine that the availability of manganese in the presence of iron can favor certain microalgae species and thus influence the composition of the plankton community and carbon export. Dr. Jenna Balaguer is currently working as a post-doctoral researcher at GEOMAR in Kiel.
• Dr. Jonas Preine, born on 22 April 1994, wrote his doctoral thesis entitled "Volcano-tectonic Evolution of the Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo Marine Volcanic Field / Central Aegean Sea" in the Department of Geophysics at the University of Hamburg. Under the supervision of Professor Dr. Christian Hübscher and Dr. Paraskevi Nomikou (University of Athens), Jonas Preine worked on seismic data of the volcanic island arc of the southern Aegean. In his work, he traced the volcanic and tectonic development of the volcanic chain with Santorini at its center over a period of three million years. To this end, he analyzed data collected on board the research vessel POSEIDON during the POS538 expedition in 2019, as well as data collected during five previous expeditions. Particular attention is paid to the recent history of destructive volcanic eruptions that influenced the development of Late Bronze Age human cultures not only on Crete, but in the entire region. Based on these findings, the dissertation presents scenarios for future research priorities around Santorini. Dr. Jonas Preine is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Hamburg.

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