For excellent climate researchOceanographer from Hamburg honored with Nansen Medal

27 November 2024

Photo: UHH

Only six female researchers have it received since 1996, now Tatiana Ilyina has also been awarded the Fridtjof Nansen Medal – one of the most important prizes for distinguished research in oceanography. The professor from the Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS) at the University of Hamburg has been making important contributions to international climate science for many years by building and using Earth System Models to advance understanding of the ocean carbon cycle and its critical role in the climate system. Most recently, she and her team made innovative predictions of the variations in the ocean and terrestrial carbon sinks and their effects on the atmospheric CO₂. These predictions were published this year in the Global Carbon Budget, the most comprehensive assessment of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land in a changing climate.

The medal is named after the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen and is awarded annually by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Tatiana Ilyina will receive the award at the EGU General Assembly in April 2025.