Annette Barthelt Prize honours outstanding theses

Every spring, the Annette Barthelt Prize for Marine Research is awarded to young scientists at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel. With this prize, the Annette Barthelt Foundation honours the victims of the 1987 terrorist attack in the African port city of Djibouti: Annette Barthelt, Daniel Reinschmidt, Marco Buchalla and Hans-Wilhelm Halbeisen. The young scientists had travelled to Djibouti to take part in an expedition of the research vessel METEOR in the Indian Ocean. On 18 March 1987, they were on the terrace of the restaurant where the bomb attack took place. The researchers' surviving dependants set up the Annette Barthelt Foundation in 1988.

“Even after 37 years, the four researchers are still unforgotten,” says Professor Arne Körtzinger, Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry at GEOMAR and Chairman of the Annette Barthelt Foundation. “With the foundation's awards, we want to keep the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack alive. At the same time, we want to honour the important contribution that young talents in marine research make to a better understanding of the ocean system.”

At this year's award ceremony, which takes place today for the first time at the new GEOMAR extension building, Dr Jenna Balaguer and Dr Jonas Preine will be honoured for their outstanding dissertations. “I congratulate the two researchers on the Annette Barthelt Prize”, says Professor Dr Katja Matthes, Director of GEOMAR. “Their work makes an important contribution to the study of the ocean from the seafloor to the atmosphere. A big thank you also goes to the Foundation, which once again emphasises the importance of ship-based research.”

The winners of the Annette Barthelt Prize 2024:

Dr Jenna Balaguer, born on 9 November 1993, completed her PhD thesis entitled “Iron and Manganese Co-Limitation – A potential driver of Southern Ocean Phytoplankton ecology” at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven and the University of Bremen. In her PhD thesis, Jenna Balaguer investigated the co-limitation of iron and manganese in relation to phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean under the supervision of Dr Scarlett Trimborn (AWI). During and after the PS124 expedition with the research vessel POLARSTERN in 2021, she conducted various culture experiments with dominant species of the Southern Ocean. Such experiments with trace metals such as iron and manganese are very challenging. She was able to show that the availability of manganese in the presence of iron can favour certain microalgae species and thus influence the composition of the plankton community and carbon export. Dr Jenna Balaguer is currently a postdoctoral researcher at GEOMAR in Kiel.

Dr Jonas Preine, born on 22 April 1994, wrote his PhD thesis entitled “Volcano-tectonic Evolution of the Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo Marine Volcanic Field / Central Aegean Sea” at the Department of Geophysics at the University of Hamburg. Under the supervision of Professor Dr Christian Hübscher and Dr Paraskevi Nomikou (University of Athens), Jonas Preine worked on reflection seismic data of the Hellenic volcanic island arc of the southern Aegean. His work traces the volcano-tectonic evolution of the volcanic chain, with Santorini at its centre, over a period of three million years. To do this, he analysed data collected on board the research vessel POSEIDON during the POS538 expedition in 2019, as well as data collected during five previous cruises. Particular attention is paid to the recent history of destructive volcanic eruptions, which have influenced the development of late bronze age human cultures not only on Crete, but in the entire region. Based on these findings, the dissertation highlights the need for future early warning and risk mitigation measures for the island of Santorin. Jonas Preine is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Hamburg.

Project funding:

The Annette Barthelt Prize comes with a research grant of 6,000 euros, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Dr Jenna Balaguer was funded by the German Research Foundation as a doctoral student under the Priority Programme 1158 – Antarctic Research (TR-899-4). Her current postdoctoral position in the Ocean Glow project led by Dr Thomas J. Browning is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.

Funding Dr Jonas Preine was funded by the German Research Foundation as a doctoral student (Grant number: 434763330). His current postdoctoral position at the University of Hamburg is funded by the German Research Foundation under the IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) Priority program (Grant number: 506199584)