Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gerold Wefer
Gerold Wefer was born in 1944. He studied geology and paleontology in Kiel and Miami and later on received his PhD in those disciplines. Afterwards, Wefer was promoted to professor at the Christian-Albrecht-University of Kiel. Since 1985, he has been Professor for General Geology at the University of Bremen. Additionally, he is a member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen and honorary doctor at the University of Oldenburg.
In his research, Wefer focused on marine geology - his field of study contains mainly ecological topics crossing the disciplines of geology, biology, environmental chemistry and climatology. The scientist went on numerous expeditions with research vessels like Meteor, Polarstern und JOIDES Resolution. Wefer was founder of the DFG-research center MARUM (Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences) and headed the institution until 2012.
In 2006, the geologist became chairman of Wissenschaft im Dialog gGmbH. In 2001, Wefer was awarded the Communicator Prize worth 50,000 euros, by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Donor’s Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Every year, that award is given to scientists, who stand out in their ability to communicate their research to the general public.