Antje Boetius is a polar and deep-sea researcher, and President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Research Aquarium Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, California, USA. From 2017-2025 she was the Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. Antje Boetius is an expert of biological oceanography, deep-sea biology, microbial ecology and biogeochemistry of the ocean, as well as of novel ocean observation technologies. Antje Boetius has led or participated in over 50 expeditions, and she has coordinated many national and international research programs focusing on continental margins and ocean basis including polar seas. Current topics of her research include the study of life and ocean landscapes under the ice, and the long-term observation of the effects of global warming on polar ecosystems. Antje Boetius is an external scientific member of the Max Planck Society, of the German National Academy Leopoldina and several other international academies. She has acted as a policy advisor to numerous national and international commissions on climate, biodiversity and science innovation in her role as AWI director. Currently she coordinates a UN Ocean Decade program for synchronous interdisciplinary observation around Antarctica. She has a long record in science communication including collaboration with arts and media, and has received numerous awards in recognition of her contribution to public engagement.