Permafrost researcher Hubberten honored for lifetime achievement

"I am extremely happy to receive this award," says Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten. “I have dedicated more than 20 years of my scientific career to permafrost and, together with many colleagues, have contributed to a better understanding of the behavior of permafrost in the course of global change. In addition, it was particularly important for me to promote the importance of German and European permafrost research on an international scale through my involvement in the IPA and many international committees and organizations.”

"This Award is a well-deserved recognition of Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten’s lifetime achievements," says Prof. Dr Antje Boetius, Director of the AWI. “Hans has set scientific milestones in Earth system research. He also inspired many young people to become involved in Arctic research, which today plays a crucial role in understanding our climate system. He has taken many important and courageous steps in his own career and is a role model for many who have followed him.”

While most scientists dedicate their academic careers to a single field, Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten managed to lead two lives as a researcher: one as a marine geologist in his early years, and a second as a permafrost researcher. His impressive career began in 1974, when he completed his degree in mineralogy at the University of Tübingen. Three years later, he completed his doctorate at the University of Karlsruhe, where he also qualified as a professor in 1984. He took up his first professorship in Mexico at the Faculty of Geosciences of the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon in Linares. After returning to Germany in 1986, he worked as a marine geologist at the AWI in Bremerhaven until 1991.

When Germany was reunified in 1990, the AWI decided to open a new research unit on the remnants of the Central Institute for Earth Physics of the former GDR in Potsdam. Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten was offered the opportunity to head this new location. In 1992, he moved from Bremerhaven to Potsdam and began his second career. Shortly after his arrival, he set the focus of the newly established institute on the topic of permafrost.

Today, the Permafrost Research Section in Potsdam has become one of the most respected scientific center for permafrost studies in the world. Among other things, he played a leading role in organizing the 11th International Permafrost Conference in Potsdam in 2016. To date, it is the largest permafrost conference of all time with more than 730 participants from 36 countries.

Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten also increasingly focused on the topic of permafrost in his own scientific career when he moved to Potsdam. In 1997, he was appointed University Professor of Isotope Geology at the University of Potsdam, where he supervised and co-supervised an incredible number of doctoral students. Some of them became leading experts in the permafrost research community. Although Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten was never a trained permafrost researcher, his publication list shows that he quickly connected with the research community and tackled scientific questions that later proved vital to permafrost research. With 174 peer-reviewed publications, he is one of the best permafrost researchers of our time. He led pioneering studies on submarine permafrost and the Quaternary environment. His work "The periglacial climate and environment in northern Eurasia during the Last Glaciation", published in Quaternary Science Reviews in 2004, became a classic in the permafrost literature.