Oldenburg. The former member of the ICBM research group Marine Geochemistry, Dr. Anika Pohlabeln, was recently awarded the renowned Paul Crutzen Prize. Pohlabeln, who was a coworker in the ICBM research group headed by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Dittmar from November 2013 to January 2017, got the award for a publication on dissolved organic sulfur (DOS), issued along with several co-authors. She accepted the prize in a ceremony held during the conference „Umwelt 2018“ (Environment 2018) on 10 September in the German city of Münster, where she also gave a talk on her topic.
The subsection „Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology“ of the German Association of Chemists awards the Paul Crutzen Prize for outstanding scientific work on these topics. Before Pohlabeln started her work on the recently priced publication, only little was known on this kind of sulfur compounds, analytics were difficult. Pohlabeln worked out methods on structure determination and investigated possible sources of DOS.
Her time at ICBM, Pohlabeln perceived as impressive on a professional as well as personal basis. The team spirit in particular, even on an international level, appealed to her. Consequently, she draws very positive conclusions to mark the awards ceremony: „My work being awarded the Paul Crutzen Prize by the subsection Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology of the German Association of Chemists is a great honour and compliment for me as well as the institute’s work. I feel very pleased.“
Pohlabeln, A.M., Gomez-Saez, G.V., Noriega-Ortega, B.E. und Dittmar, T. (2017) Experimental Evidence for Abiotic Sulfurization of Marine Dissolved Organic Matter. Frontiers in Marine Sciencedoi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00364