Ilse van Opzeeland wins Annette Barthelt Award 2011
27 May 2011. Dr. Ilse van opzeeland is the winner of this year's annette Barthelt award. The scientist from Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine research in the Helmholtz Association receives the award for her dissertation at the University of Bremen with the titel:"Acoustic ecology of marine mammals in polar oceans". She attained most of the data from the acoustic observatory PALAOA, which is operated by the Ocean Acouctics group of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Antartica. The Annette Barthelt Award is endowed with 6000 Euros supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Ilse van Opzeeland shares the prize with Dr. Florian Scholtz from IfM-Geomar in Kiel. Photos of the winner can be found here. More information about the acoustic observatory PALAOA can be found here.
Open Day at Biological Institute Helgoland
27 May 2011. This year's open day takes place at the Biological Institute Helgoland on Saturday, the 28th May. From 3:00 to 7:00 pm the staff provides insights into their scientific work. Plants, animals and also mircroorganisms such as bacteria and viruses are the research objects of the scientists. The visitors can gain new information about marine life in the North Sea in the laboratories, the aquarium, the library, the new centre of scientific diving which was opened in 2010, and on the research vessels. The guests can discuss recent findings with the scientists with coffee and cakes while the young discover the institute on a rally.
North Sea Office website online now
25 May 2011. The North Sea is a unique natural region and important economic area. The resultant conflicts of interest together with climate change require scientific advice to policy and conservation agencies. At the sites in Bremerhaven, Helgoland and Sylt the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) conducts manifold investigations related to the changing North Sea. Based on that, the institute actively participates in programs, projects and contract research activities on environmental observation. With their accumulated expertise AWI scientists are engaged in national and European advisory boards.
Memorandum of Undestanding with Yakutsk and Kazan
16 May 2011. On May 12th representatives of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the universities of Yakutsk (Republic Sakha, Russia) and Kazan (Russia) signed a cooperation agreement in Potsdam concerning scientific collaboration in the fields of polar and climate research. Both universities belong to the small circle of Russian Federal Universities, which consists of only seven universities altogether. Therefore the cooperation promises joint scientific work at a high level.
The establishment of a "Joint German-Russian Laboratory for the Investigation of the Environmental Dynamics in the Terrestrial Arctic (Biological Monitoring - BioM)" is a further connection. Dr. Larisa Nazarova leads this laboratory at the Alfred Wegener Intsitute, and Dr. Ludmilla Pestryakova at the Univeryity of Yakutsk. It is funded by the The German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) and Russia.
The photo from the signing shows: Dr. Ludmilla Pestryakova, Prof. Karin Lochte (front), Dr. Larisa Nazarova (AWI), and Prof. Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten (behind).
Science Ministers of Norway and Germany meet in Berlin
12 May 2011. Today Tora Aasland, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, and Prof. Annette Schavan, German Federal Minister of Education and Research, meet in the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Berlin. They open the polar seminar "NORD! Polar and Climate Research in the High North" in which the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Reserach in the Helmholtz Association is involved. AWI-Director Prof. Karin Lochte is going to present in her talk "International Research in the High North - The German Experience. German-Norwegian Polar Cooperation." Topics will be Svalbard Integrated Earth Observing System (SIOS) and the cabling of the deep sea observatory "AWI-Hausgarten".
Further information is given on the website of the Norwegian Embassy and in the program of the polar seminar (PDF).
The photo shows (from right to left) Tora Aasland, Annette Schavan and Karin Lochte during a visit of the German-French research base AWIPEV on Spitzbergen in 2008. Photo: F. Steinhoff, Alfred Wegener Institute
Girls' Day 2011
4 May 2011. Where does the Earth move? How are maps developed? These questions and five others were objectives of workshops at the Alfred Wegener Institute's Girls' Day on April 14th 2011. More than 70 girls got in contact with science, research, and everything related to it. Here you can find photos from the Girls' Day...