For the past seven years, Prof Antje Boetius has served as Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Tentatively, as of May 1, 2025, she will join Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California to serve as President.
She says: “Until now, making a career change never occurred to me. I love the AWI, the people who work here, Bremerhaven and our other sites, and I very much enjoy the societal relevance of and respect for our polar and coastal research. However, I have now been presented with the exceptional prospect of leading this prestigious institute, which will enable me to devote more attention to the exploration of uncharted marine life and ocean dynamics—plus, it is the right time to contemplate the future, as I am approaching the midpoint of the second term at AWI.”
Antje Boetius had known MBARI since the 1990s when she studied oceanography in California. “After several years of science management at Helmholtz, focusing on big science and the grand societal challenges, I’d like to get closer to the process of innovation exploring the ocean. I am hoping to have more time to contribute to marine protection through top-notch scientific expertise and the development of completely new methods and ocean technologies,” she says: “Moreover, there is a personal element to this transition; my research began in the deep waters of the Pacific thirty years ago, and returning to that environment feels profoundly meaningful.”
The role of the MBARI President is also to drive international collaboration and networking with universities, research institutes, and other non-profit organizations around the globe so as to accelerate the acquisition of new knowledge regarding the dynamic ocean and the diverse life it contains. Moreover, scientific communication on research into climate impacts on biodiversity in the ocean and solutions for protecting, preserving, and sustainably using the ocean will play a key part in her work.
The non-profit institute, which receives extended funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, is also a longstanding partner of the University of Bremen’s Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) and the AWI in the area of deep-sea research and oceanography. As such, there will be further excellent opportunities for collaboration between the institutions. In this regard, Antje Boetius will remain in contact with the region, the German marine research community, and international policy advisors as a collaborative professor at the University of Bremen and the AWI.
