Sinikka Lennartz
Sinikka Lennartz
 | Assistant Professor of Biogeochemical Ocean Modelling Tel.: +49-441-798-3839 Email: sinikka.lennartz@uni-oldenburg.de |
Research Interests
I have a broad interest in ocean biogeochemistry and how it interacts with the climate system. My focus is on incorporating microbial processes into biogeochemical ocean models, in particular heterotrophic microorganisms that remineralise organic carbon into CO₂. I combine ecological theory and biogeochemical modelling, using a network perspective to address questions relating to microbial and chemical diversity.
Current Projects
- The Cluster of Excellence‘The Ocean Floor’: Grantholder (DFG)
- Drivers behind the distribution of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the global ocean – present and future (MWK)
- Interaction networks of phototrophic and heterotrophic microbial communities (funded by the Simons Foundation, USA) as part of the CBIOMES project
- Quantifying coastal emissions of carbonyl sulphide (DFG & NSF)
Education & Academic Career
| since 2022 | Professor of Biogeochemical Ocean Modelling at the University of Oldenburg |
| 2021–2022 | Walter Benjamin Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA |
| 2019 – 2021 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Marine Geochemistry, ICBM, University of Oldenburg |
| 2017–2018 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Marine Biogeochemistry, Prof. Marandino’s Research Group, GEOMAR, Kiel |
| 2013–2017 | PhD student, Marine Biogeochemistry, Prof. Marandino’s research group, GEOMAR, Kiel Thesis: “From local to global scale – marine emissions of the climate-relevant sulphur gases carbonyl sulphide, carbon disulphide and dimethyl sulphide” (s.c.l.) |
| 2011–2013 | Geoecology, Master of Science, Technical University of Braunschweig, including a placement at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Doney’s research group) |
| 2007–2010 | Geoecology and ecosystem management, Bachelor of Science, University of Tübingen, including placements at ETH Zurich/eawag for my Bachelor’s thesis (Wehrli’s research group) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Lake Research (Friese’s research group) |
Expeditions
| 2010 | WHIII-345 (Bremerhaven – Bremerhaven) |
| 2013 | several one-day cruises on the RV Littorina, Boknis Eck time-series station |
| 2014 | SO235-OASIS SONNE (Pt. Louis, Mauritius – Malé, Maldives) |
| 2015 | SO243 ASTRA-OMZ (Guayaquil, Ecuador – Antofagasta, Chile) |
| 2017 | M138 (Callao, Peru – Bahía las Minas, Panama) |
Awards
| 2025 | Lower Saxony Science Award |
| 2025 | Heinz Maier-Leibniz Award from the German Research Foundation |
| 2025 | Georg Wüst Award from the German Society for Marine Research (DGM)/Springer Nature |
| 2024 | Award from the Society of the University of Oldenburg (UGO) for outstanding research |
| 2018 | Doctoral Prize of the Helmholtz Association, ‘Earth and Environment’ category |
| 2017 | Award from the Werner-Petersen Foundation for an outstanding PhD thesis at Geomar |
| 2017 | Bernd Rendel Prize (DFG) for outstanding early-career geoscientists |
| 2016 | Selected participant at the 25th Dissertation Symposium on Chemical Oceanography, Hawaii, USA |
| 2015 | Science Award from the Annette Barthelt Foundation for an outstanding Master’s thesis |
Past Grants & Projects
- Global Carbon Cycling and Complex Molecular Patterns in Aquatic Systems: Integrated Analyses Powered by Semantic Data Management (funded by MWK/Volkswagen Foundation)
- A novel approach to quantifying global oceanic emissions of carbonyl sulphide (COS) (funded by MWK/Volkswagen Foundation)