Institution: Kiel University

A marine biologist-cum-biogeochemist, Dr. Avan Antia researched the biological pump and its capacity to sequester CO2. Moving from research into higher education, Dr. Antia is currently Head of the Integrated School of Ocean Sciences (ISOS), the graduate school for marine sciences in Kiel, Germany. She was heavily involved in the conceptualisation of postgraduate education in marine sciences, which reflects the multidisciplinary network in Kiel spanning five faculties, and has been central to the realisation of this Ocean MOOC.

Professor Martin Visbeck is Head of the Research Unit ‘Physical Oceanography at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany. Research interests of Martin Visbeck and his group revolve around the ocean role in the climate system with an emphasis on understanding climate change and climate variability. As the speaker of the German Excellence Initiative ‘The Future Ocean’ in Kiel, he is involved in integrated marine sciences bringing together different disciplines to work on marine issues. More recently, he has been heavily engaged in the sustainable development of the ocean. Prof. Visbeck is a member of the Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) as well as a member of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme.

Athanasios Vafeidis is the Head of the Working Group “Coastal Risks and Sea-Level Rise Research at Kiel University. Read more about his work here: http://www.crslr.uni-kiel.de/en/people/gruppenleiter/prof.-athanasios-vafeidis.html.

Klaus Wallmann is a Professor of Marine Geosystems at Kiel University. Read more about his work here: http://www.geomar.de/en/mitarbeiter/fb2/mg/kwallmann/.

Horst Sterr is Emeritus Professor of Coastal Geography at Kiel University, Germany. A primary focus of his research has been the impacts of climate change on coastal regions, covering aspects from coastal hazards to the assessment of coastal societies’ vulnerability. In the 1990s Prof. Sterr was the scientific representative for Germany in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group on Coastal Zone Management. He was engaged for 20 years in developing coastal zone management strategies and projects in Germany on a national and regional level. He has also been involved in a risk management advisory board for the German Government for over 10 years.

Karl Statteger is Head of the Research Unit “Sedimentology, Coastal- and Continental Shelf Research” at Kiel University.

A multidisciplinary specialist, Dr. Jörn Schmidt is Postdoctoral Fellow currently working in the realm of social-ecological systems and concepts of sustainability in the ocean in the Environmental, Resource and Ecological Economics at Kiel University, Germany. His research incorporates questions about transitioning from single to multi-species fisheries management, science communication with stakeholders, the use of games for education and communication (e.g., ‘ecoOcean’) and the application of coupled models in developing practical management advice. In 2012 he became the German representative in the Science Committee (SCICOM) and is a member of the Publication Committee (PUBCOM) of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). He is co-chair of the ICES Benchmark Steering Group (BSG) and the ICES Strategic Initiative on the Human Dimension in Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (SIHD).

Professor Ulf Riebesell is a biological Oceanographer at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany. The focus of his research is on the effects of environmental change (ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation) on marine ecosystems: from plankton physiology, ecology and evolution to food web interactions and biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. Since 2009 Prof. Riebesell has been the coordinator of the German national research programme Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification (BIOACID) funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research. He contributed to the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Repor and the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) special report “The Future Ocean“ Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour. In 2011 he received the Vernadsky Award of the European Geosciences Union and in 2012 the Leibniz Award of the German Research Foundation. In 2016 he was awarded an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council.

Professor Thorsten Reusch is Head of Marine Ecology and the research unit  Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Fish™ at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany. His main interests are how species and communities may evolutionarily adapt in the face of global change, and how marine organisms generally adapt to extreme environments of lifestyles. For the conservation of marine ecosystem function and to keep the adaptation potential of marine ecosystems, genetic diversity may be as important as species diversity. Thorsten Reusch has an extensive publication record in scientific journals including Nature and Science covering topics from population genetics, invasive species and the evolutionary changes in marine organisms in a changing environment.