Excellent scientific expertise coupled with admonishing practicality: these are some of the characteristics which have earned Bremen Marine Physicist Monika Rhein a first-class reputation around the world. On March 14 she was awarded the Albert-Defant Medaille 2016 for her outstanding research on the regularities of Atlantic water circulation and her leading role in authoring the Ocean Chapter of the World Climate Research Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Monika Rhein, Professor of the University of Bremen’s Institute for Environmental Physics (IUP) and Centre for Marine Environmental Research (MARUM), shares the coveted research prize with Hamburg Oceanographer, Professor Jürgen Sündermann.
Monika Rhein has held a professorship in the University’s Faculty of Physics and Electrical Engineering since 2000. During this time she has organized and implemented over 20 expeditions on German and European research vessels. In her speech of thanks, the prominent Bremen researcher said: “The success of research voyages depends on smooth functioning teamwork on the part of the researchers, technicians and logistics experts who are honored here today. My thanks also goes to the captains and crew of the research vessels”.
Monika Rhein has achieved some fame in the international scientific community for her many fundamental contributions to understanding processes in the Atlantic Ocean that impact on the Earth’s climate. The laudatory speech mentioned in particular the part she played in writing the chapter “Ocean Observation” contained in the fifth World Climate Report published in 2013/2014, in which the Bremen physicist for the first time clearly illustrated what an important role the ocean plays for the global energy balance.
About the Albert-Defant medal
The award was endowed in 1986 by the German Meteorological Society to mark the the centenary of Albert Defant. Every three years, the Society awards the distinction to research personalities who make outstanding contributions to the field of Physical Oceanography. A crucial time in the life’s work of Albert Defant came when he published the scientific findings of the German South Atlantic Expedition on the research vessel METEOR which he participated in (1925-1927), and later voyages he organized (1929-1935).
For more information on this topic, please contact:
University of Bremen
Institute for Environmental Physics
Centre for Marine Environmental Research (MARUM)
Prof.Dr. Monika Rhein
Phone: +49 421 218 62160
email: mrheinprotect me ?!physik.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
www.ocean.uni-bremen.de
