Prof. Dr. Karin Lochte (*1952) has been director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association situated in Bremerhaven, Germany since November 2007. Using her position to promote the large scientific tasks related to Polar Sciences, she has been acting as a delegate of the “Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research” since 2008. Karin Lochte is and was member of diverse national and international committees. From 2004 to 2010 she has been member of the German Wissenschaftsrat, passing the chair of the scientific commission from 2006 to 2008. From 2004 to 2011 she has been chairing the “Senatskommission für Ozeanographie“. Since 2010 she is chairing the Konsortium Deutsche Meeresforschung. Prior to her directorship at the Alfred Wegener Institute, between 1990 and 1994, Karin Lochte already has been involved in scientific research at this institution on the bacterial colonisation and activity of bacteria in sea ice. From 1995 to 2007, Karin Lochte had been lecturing on Biological Oceanography, at the universities of Rostock and Kiel. From 2000 to 2007 Karin Lochte was head of the research unit Biological Oceanography at the Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften. From 1995 to 2000, Karin Lochte was head of the similar research unit at the Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung in Warnemünde. In 1994, Karin Lochte received her Venia legendi at the University of Bremen. Prior to her professorship, Karin Lochte worked on the topic “Deep Sea Microbiology” from 1985 to 1990 at the Institut für Meereskunde, University of Kiel. Karin Lochte received her PhD in Marine Biology at the University College of North Wales, UK in 1984.