The Otto Krümmel Prize 2025 was conferred during today’s GEOMAR Science Day. The €1,500 award went to Mayra Schlack, a Master’s student of Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Oldenburg, for her Bachelor’s thesis “Carbonyl sulphide: Formation of a climate-relevant gas in the ocean”. Her work focused on the still little-understood process of the photochemical production of the climate-relevant sulphur gas carbonyl sulphide in the ocean.
Highlighting the importance of Bachelor’s theses
“The work of Ms Schlack impressively demonstrates how even at the level of a Bachelor’s thesis, key progress can be made in understanding climate processes of global relevance,” said Dr Peter Gimpel, Chair of the Society to Support GEOMAR. “With the Otto Krümmel Award, we want to make exactly these achievements visible and underline the significance of the Bachelor’s degree in scientific education.”
“The Otto Krümmel Award is a wonderful recognition for young researchers,” said Frank Spiekermann, Administrative Director of GEOMAR. “We present it as part of our centre’s internal Science Day, deliberately involving the awardee in our scientific dialogue. Ms Schlack’s work highlights the vital link between fundamental ocean research and global climate issues.”
Captain Klaus Küper of the Briese shipping company, which co-funds the award, also emphasised the importance of the prize: “As a shipping company, we are proud to contribute to marine science in Germany through the management of research vessels. All the more, we are delighted when young scientists such as Ms Schlack commit themselves to this field with great dedication. Her work underscores the importance of ocean research for understanding global climate questions – and with our sponsorship we want to help ensure that Bachelor’s theses like this receive the visibility they deserve.”
The laudatory speech for Mayra Schlack was given by Professor Dr Sinikka Lennartz, Professor of Biogeochemical Ocean Modelling at the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment at the University of Oldenburg, who supervised her thesis.
Data collection during an Antarctic voyage
For her work, Mayra Schlack used a dataset from an Atlantic transit of the research vessel POLARSTERN from Bremerhaven to Cape Town. In addition to meteorological and oceanographic parameters, water samples were analysed, with the dissolved organic matter examined using high-resolution mass spectrometry. The molecular information obtained in this way is so far unique. Using a biogeochemical model, Schlack calculated how much carbonyl sulphide could be produced daily through the influence of sunlight and linked this rate to the molecular properties of the dissolved organic matter.
The results show that a high sulphur content in dissolved organic matter does not necessarily lead to a high photoproduction rate of carbonyl sulphide. Apparently, not all sulphur-containing molecules are equally suitable as precursors for the gas. Her work contributes to clarifying the role of the ocean as a source of carbonyl sulphide and reducing uncertainties in global climate models.
