AWI Directors Visit Siberian Partner Institutes

From 14 to 21 June 2015, for the first time Prof Karin Lochte, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and Dr Karsten Wurr, Administrative Director of the AWI, visited Siberia. Their goal: to meet our local research partners in person and to support the continuing development and expansion of Russian-German scientific collaborations. The two Directors were accompanied on their journey by Prof Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten, the head of the AWI’s Periglacial Research section, and by Prof Eva-Maria Pfeiffer from Universität Hamburg, both of whom have worked to establish intensive and successful collaborations with our Russian partners since the 1990s. Further delegation members included Dr Anne Morgenstern, who is responsible for coordinating the AWI’s scientific efforts in Siberia; Dirk Mengedoht, who represented AWI Logistics; and Dr Mikhail N. Grigoriev, head of the Arctic Centre – Samoilovsky Island Research Station and Assistant Director of the Melnikov Permafrost Institute (MPI), part of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS). The group made stops at Novosibirsk, Yakutsk and Samoilovsky Island Research Station in the Lena Delta.

The journey, which included numerous talks with the researchers and heads of the institutions visited, ensured the continuation and expansion of joint scientific endeavours. This can especially be seen in the development of various proposals for projects and support measures, and in the agreements made on concrete steps for their implementation over the weeks and months to come.

During a visit to the Consulate General in Novosibirsk, the joint efforts and plans were also presented to Ambassador Viktor Richter, who expressed his great interest in expanding the German-Russian scientific cooperation and pledged the support of the Consulate General.