In spring 2025, the director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius, will be appointed president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California. MBARI is one of the most esteemed institutes for marine research and technologies. Located on the US Pacific Coast, it specializes in exploring the deep sea and its unknown diversity of life. “This position will give me the unique opportunity to contribute to the development of innovative deep-sea technologies with a focus on imaging, robotics, sensor systems, and artificial intelligence for the protection of the oceans,” says the marine biologist.

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). She will become president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California, tentatively beginning May 1, 2025. 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 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 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 my 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 organizations around the globe in order 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 protection, 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 Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) and 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 cooperation professor for the University of Bremen and AWI.

The AWI’s Board of Governors and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will decide on the processes for the transfer and the search for a successor in a timely manner.