Antje Boetius transfers to MBARI in California

Prof Dr Antje Boetius is Head of the HGF MPG Bridging Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany, and has served as Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) for the past seven years. Tentatively as of 1 May 2025, she will join Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California to serve as President. In her words: “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 has 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 organisations around the globe, so as to accelerate the acquisition of new knowledge regarding the dynamic ocean and the diverse life it contains. Moreover, science communication on research into climate impacts on and biodiversity in the ocean, and into 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 advising as a Collaborating Professor for the University of Bremen and the AWI.

Recent photographs of Prof Antje Boetius: https://multimedia.awi.de/main/galleryview/fc=4%3A4216

Information on the AWI: www.awi.de

Information on MBARI: www.mbari.org