Headline: Karin Lochte Appointed Chair of IASS General Assembly with Karl Eugen Huthmacher as Deputy Chair

After serving more than six years as chair of the IASS General Assembly, Professor Ernst Rietschel has handed over the reins to his successor Professor Karin Lochte, director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). At a session of the General Assembly on 24 June, IASS Executive Director Klaus Töpfer thanked Ernst Rietschel for his long-standing commitment to the institute and welcomed Karin Lochte and Karl Eugen Huthmacher as the new chair and deputy chair of the General Assembly. Huthmacher heads the division Provision for the Future – Basic and Sustainability Research at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). “It is wonderful to know that the General Assembly is in such capable hands,” said Töpfer.

In recognition of his special contribution to the institute, the IASS Management Board have made Ernst Rietschel an Honorary Senior Fellow of the IASS. Rietschel played an active role in the founding and development of the IASS since the idea for such an institute was first mooted in the 2007 Potsdam Memorandum. Then President of the Leibniz Association, in 2008 he headed the working group of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany, which was entrusted with elaborating a concept for the new institute. As a founding member and first chair of the IASS General Assembly, Rietschel also helped to bring the idea of an ‘Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies’ to life. As the outgoing chair remarked: “Our aim over the last five years was to establish the IASS on the national and international stage as a flagship in the field of sustainability studies. I’m delighted to say: mission accomplished.” Rietschel will continue to provide advice and support as a regular member of the General Assembly.

Commenting on her new position as chair, Karin Lochte said “I was a founding member of the IASS, which has developed rapidly since then. I look forward to steering the further development of the institute and stimulating dialogue among representatives of science, politics and civil society in my new position as chair.” Karin Lochte is Professor of Biological Oceanography at the University of Bremen and has been director of the AWI since 2007. Her research focuses on the microbial turnover of carbon and oxygen in the ocean, which plays a role in concentrations of climate-forcing gases in the atmosphere. The AWI and the IASS cooperate on research on oceans and the Arctic.

The General Assembly is the main governing body of the IASS. It sets guidelines for the institute’s work and decides, among other things, on the research programme and the annual budget as well as appointments to the Management Board and theStrategy Advisory Board. Its members are representatives of leading German research organisations and the core funding agencies, the BMBF and the MWFK Brandenburg.

25.06.2015