DBU: German Environmental Prize Goes to Marine Biologist Boetius and Leipzig Waste Water Experts

- German President to present prize 28 October in Erfurt - Significance of Oceans and "Clean Water for All" - Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) - Marine biologist Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius (51, of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven) and an interdisciplinary team of wastewater experts from Leipzig who have made the distant vision of "Clean Water for All" a truly tangible goal in Jordan, will each receive half of the 2018 German Environmental Prize award by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), which is endowed with EUR 500,000. The DBU thus emphasizes the importance of the seas for climate, biodiversity and food supply and warns of climate change, environmental pollution and overfishing. At the same time, the further demand of the United Nations to make clean water available to the entire world population by 2030 and to ensure adequate sanitation for all, and thus significantly better living conditions, is to be underlined. The prize will be presented by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on 28 October in Erfurt to Prof. Boetius and to the team from Leipzig which includes Prof. Roland A. Müller (55), Dr. Manfred van Afferden (57), Dr. Mi-Yong Lee (47), - all of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - and Wolf-Michael Hirschfeld (70), the initiator of the Education and Demonstration Center for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment. Individual recognition of the prizewinners and photos available at http://www.dbu.de. Contact PersonFranz-Georg Elpers - Press Officer -Kerstin HeemannJana NitschGesa Wannick Contact DBU An der Bornau 2 49090 Osnabrück Phone: +49(0)541-9633-521 +49(0)171-3812-888 Fax: +49(0)[email protected]://www.dbu.de