Indian Consul General visits GEOMAR

06 February 2014/Kiel. This week, German President Joachim Gauck is visiting India and will be promoting German - Indian cooperation, including an emphasis on the areas of research and science. Against this background, the timing for the visit of the new Indian Consul General in Hamburg, Dr. Vidhu P. Nair, at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel was rather fortuitous. Today, Dr. Nair held extensive talks with GEOMAR Director Professor Peter Herzig on current developments in marine research in Germany, on active and potential collaborations between Indian and German marine research institutions, and on science policy in general. "India is not only an economically, but also scientifically strongly emerging nation. This establishes the country as an interesting partner. The Indian Ocean and the neighboring regions are very important, for example for resource exploration, but also for studies on the climate or questions about human impacts on the oceans," says Professor Herzig. Even today, there are contacts between GEOMAR scientists and their Indian colleagues, for example, in the study of gas hydrates on the seabed. And in January, researchers from all over Germany met in Kiel at GEOMAR to develop new projects in the Indian Ocean. "Therefore we are pleased that Dr. Nair has chosen to stay in touch with German marine research by visiting GEOMAR just weeks after he took office as Consul General," says Professor Herzig.