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After more than six months, the research icebreaker Polarstern is returning to its home port of Bremerhaven after a successful Antarctic season. The expeditions to the southern hemisphere and the transit there focussed on the oceanography and geology of East Antarctica as well as student training. Because of this special study area for the Polarstern, there was a change of personnel in Hobart, which was the first port call in Australia in her more than 40-year history.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology with the participation of the Alfred Wegener Institute have discovered a new partnership between a marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean. The newly-discovered bacterial symbiont is closely related to the nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia which live in partnership with many crop plants and may open up new avenues to engineer nitrogen-fixing plants. This discovery, now described in the scientific journal Nature, could open up…

Over the past two days, Berlin hosted the Arctic Circle Forum. More than 100 speakers, including Arctic researchers, policy makers and indigenous representatives, took part in over 20 sessions. In addition to AWI Director Antje Boetius, participants included Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, Icelandic Research Minister Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir and H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. 

Scientific research - not only confined to dedicated research vessels but also from non-scientific vessels and marine infrastructures. This is one of the ideas promoted by the Helmholtz Innovation Platform “Shaping an Ocean Of Possibilities” (SOOP). SOOP aims to develop new technologies and structures for ocean observation and has recently initiated a cooperation with HX Hurtigruten Expeditions. During cruise voyages to remote regions, ocean data will be collected for scientific purposes. The first expedition with SOOP technology on board now started in…

Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is traveling to the key region of the Indo-Pacific. AWI scientist Markus Rex is part of the delegation trip from May 1 to 7. At a meeting with New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters, Markus Rex, representing the AWI, signed a Memorandum of Arrangement (MoA) with New Zealand's Antarctic Authority on cooperation in the Antarctic. The core of the Antarctic Treaty System is international cooperation in science. Further information.

During the annual Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Scotland, Dirk Mengedoht, Logistics Coordinator at the AWI for land expeditions and stations in the Arctic, was elected as the new Chairman of the Forum of Arctic Research Operators (FARO). During his three-year term of office, Dirk Mengedoht intends to focus primarily on the transparency and networking of various committees and initiatives with FARO in order to better combine parallel approaches, e.g. with regard to safety in the field. 

After 10 years, the "NF-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography" program for the international promotion of young scientists at the AWI is moving on to Canada. The end of the project was celebrated at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. 100 alumni of the program from all over the world were invited to the evening event, 73 of whom were able to attend. AWI Deputy Director Karen Wiltshire hosted the evening, which was celebrated in the museum's dinosaur hall.

POLARIN (Polar Research Infrastructure Network) - the new EU project at the AWI has now officially started: The kick-off meeting took place from April 17 to 19 in Bremerhaven. Almost 100 representatives came together to discuss the implementation of the project. The aim of POLARIN is to establish an international network of polar research infrastructures and their services in order to tackle the scientific challenges of the polar regions. 

The Green Party parliamentary group visited the AWI on April 24. They were welcomed by Karen Wiltshire, Vice-Director of the AWI and Director of the Biological Institute Helgoland and the Wadden Sea Station Sylt. After a joint exchange, the group visited the newly built Technikum.

A decade of excellence: Over the past ten years 100 scholars from 47 countries to become experts in marine science were trained at the Alfred Wegener Institute. This highly effective programme funded by the Nippon Foundation and the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) and the Alfred Wegener Institute is successfully completed. This is a perfect occasion to celebrate all candidates and their teachers, and the graduation of the ten current participants from ten different countries in Berlin at the Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz…