Awards and honors
ERC Grands - European Research Grants
Gerrit Lohmann, ERC Synergy Grant i2B, November 2024 - October 2030.
The research division Geo Science is also involved in this project. Into the Blue: Resolving Past Arctic Greenhouse Climates. What are the global impacts of an ice- free Arctic? Taking a look into time periods warmer-than-present (i.e. Pleistocene interglacials, the Pliocene, and the Miocene, possible long-term future) when the Arctic lost its white landscape and had a blue, ice-free ocean.
Alexander Haumann, ERC Starting Grant VERTEXSO, January 2023 - Dcember 2027.
VERTEXSO (VERTical EXchange in the Southern Ocean) studies vertical transport processes in observations and model simulations in the Southern Ocean, with a particular focus on convective plumes in the seasonally ice-covered ocean. Aim is to improve the representation of vertical transport processes in models, assess their impact on vertical heat and carbon exchange and the global climate system.
Felix Pithan, ERC Starting Grant A3M-transform, October 2023 - September 2028.
A3M-transfor is understanding Arctic amplification through air-mass transformations and aims to understand stronger Arctic than lower-latitude climate change by following relatively warm and moist air masses that are advected into the Arctic, where they cool and dry. We use air-mass following balloons to observe these air-mass transformations, high-resolution models to understand the impact of individual processes on water and energy budgets and analysis of climate models to better understand the global change signal.
Young Investigator Groups
Friederike Pollmann, since 2025.
Artemics (Arctic internal wave energetics and mixing and their interdependence with sea ice in changing climate conditions) aims to elucidate the role of internal gravity waves in the warming Arctic Ocean. We want to identify if and how internal wave energy, wave-driven mixing, and sea ice melt are connected and will develop a physics-based representation of these connections for consistent climate modeling.
Lettie Roach, since 2024.
SouthernOcean and Antarctic Sea ice Evolution (SO-ASE) focuses on understanding the drivers of sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice changes from the satellite era to a warmer world. SO-ASE aims to unravel the fundamental physics of ice-climate interactions in polar regions and improve climate projections for these areas.
Alexander Haumann, since 2023.
SOS-iClimate (Southern Ocean Salinity-Isotopic Fingerprints and Impacts on Global Climate) seeks an answer to the question how melting Antarctic ice masses alter the ocean salinity and circulation and if these changes will amplify or dampen global warming in the future. Ocean tracers serve as a fingerprint of the impact of rapidly melting ice masses on the ocean’s salinity and will be used to constrain a climate model.
Stefanie Arndt, since 2023.
SNOWflAke (Learning from local snow properties for large-scale Antarctic ice pack volume) aims to study the response of snow cover on Antarctic sea ice to changing atmospheric conditions and its impact on sea ice mass balance. Through observations and model development, this research will enhance our understanding of the processes affecting Antarctic sea ice in the Southern Ocean's climate system.
UNESCO Award - Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Renate Treffeisen and Klaus Grosfeld, 2023.
klimafit - wissen.wollen.wandeln
National Award - Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German UNESCO Commission. The klimafit core team includes:
at AWI: Dr. Renate Treffeisen, Dr. Klaus Grosfeld, at the WWF Germany: Bettina Münch-Epple, Nadja Kulikowa, at the University of Hamburg: Prof. Dr. Beate Ratter und Dr. Martin Döring.
BRIESE-Prize for marine research
Luisa von Albedyll is awarded with the BRIESE-Prize for Marine Research 2022 for her doctoral thesis in 2023. The jury recognizes her outstanding research, which contributes significantly to the understanding of dynamic processes that influence the thickness of polar sea ice.
Hartmut Heinrich Award
The unexpected discovery of Hartmut Heinrich has an enormous influence on the work of the section Paleoclimate Dynamics.
Deep-sea sediment cores recovered from the Northeast Atlantic Ocean were examined in order to elucidate the influence of the Earth’s orbital parameters on major ice rafting. Analyses of coarse-grained ice-rafted debris and planktonic foraminifers revealed a strong reaction to the precession signal. Since 130,000 yr B.P., dropstone layers have been deposited each half period of a precessional cycle (11,000 ± 1000 yr). Ice rafting occurs during times of winter minimum/summer maximum insolation and summer minimum/winter maximum insolation. In the first case, high summer insolation forces meltwater discharge from the ice sheets into the polar seas which subsequently enhances formation of sea ice during the winter. In the second case, growth of continental ice enhances iceberg production which also leads to a salinity reduction of surface seawater. Both situations result in a southward penetration of polar water. Thus, the marine record of dropstones documents ice rafting not only during Weichselian stades but also during cold events within interstades. The regularity of ice rafting yields a useful framework to calibrate and elucidate climatic changes, not only in the region of the North Atlantic Ocean but also in remote areas such as the Pacific Ocean and the Antarctic.
Wladimir Köppen Prize
Luisa von Albedyll is awarded with the Wladimir Köppen Prize 2022 for her excellent doctoral thesis in 2024.
Alfred-Wegener Awards
Transferprize
Dr. Monica Ionita-Scholz, 2022. Video of the Prize winner
Dr. Klaus Grosfeld and Dr. Renate Treffeisen, 2020. Video from #klimafit
Science Communication Award
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Arndt, 2023. Video of the Prize winner
Silent Hero Preis
Stephanie Carstensen, 2023. Video of the Prize winner
Doctoral Award
Dr. Luisa von Albedyll, 2022. Video of the Prize winner