Anabel von Jackowski

I became captivated by the beauty of the ocean as a child and this admiration for the magnificent blue ecosystem has only intensified over the years. When I was six, my family moved to Malta, where I would spend afternoons at the beach and weekends sailing around the island to turquoise blue lagoons. After moving back to Switzerland, I lost sight of the ocean but never of aquatic ecosystems with the countless rivers and thousands of lakes in the heart of the European continent. Furthermore, my biology teacher at Basel International School and youth summer camps with the World Wildlife Fund Switzerland opened my eyes to how just +0.5 C can cause an entire glacier to retreat. The upcoming consequences of global warming motivated me to pursue the Marine Biology program at Hawaii Pacific University on O’ahu. Yet, even paradise can't escape the human touch, so I would organize hikes and beach clean-ups for the students in the Marine Biology Club on the weekends. I continued my path in research with a Master's in Marine Microbiology and PhD in Biological Oceanography in Germany, and post-doctoral projects in France and Sweden. In addition to research, I am involved in science communication through press releases and networking among changemakers like the Youth4Ocean Forum or the ECOP Program as a coordinator of the DACH node and BlueCaD Project. As the mid-term of the United Nations Decade for Ocean Science is approaching, I believe it is more important than ever to advocate for the change we want to see in the world and protect marine diversity from ourselves.