Marine geologist, Professor Gerhard Bohrmann, has received the Tsungming Tu Award in recognition of his services to science. This is the highest academic honor that the West Pacific Island can bestow on a foreign research scientist. The prize, which is awarded in cooperation with the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung and the Ministry for Science and Technology in Taiwan, is named after the Taiwanese physician Tsungming Tu.

Professor Gerhard Bohrmann received the prize from the hands of Ter-Shing Chen, Deputy Minister of the Science Ministry, during a ceremony held in the library of the National Taiwan University. Taiwan honored the German scientist from the University of Bremen’s Faculty of Geosciences and MARUM for his pioneering deep-sea research, especially on methane hydrates. Analogous to the Alexander von Humboldt Prize, the Tsungming Tu award is endowed with 75,000 dollars, which the prizewinner can use over the next few years to finance his research stay in Taiwan.

About the prizewinner:

Professor Gerhard Bohrmann studied Geology-Paleontology at TH Darmstadt. Following this, he joined the academic staff of the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, where he submitted his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Sedimentation history of biogenous opal in the northern North Atlantic”. Later, he went on to research at the Alfred Wegener Institute and GEOMAR in Kiel, where until 2002 he was leader of the  central research unit “Lithothek”, before being appointed Professor for General Geology and Marine Geology at the University of Bremen. The 61-year-old is well known and highly sought after in expert circles. For instance, “Bohrmann” is featured as a character in the novel “Der Schwarm” [the swarm] by Frank Schätzing. In the book he only narrowly escapes a shark attack in which his fictitious companion dies. The best-seller author gave him this role in the book in gratitude for Professor Bohrmann’s expert advice during the writing of the book.