Two experts from Germany are among the ten people who 2020 played a decisive role in science for the British specialist magazine “Nature”: Kathrin, who was born in Erfurt Jansen, head of vaccine research at the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and Verena Mohaupt, employee of the Bremerhaven Alfred Wegener Institute (Awi) and head of logistics for the Arctic expedition “Mosaic”.

The research vessel “Polarstern” had drifted in the central Arctic for around a year, docked on a huge ice floe. It had returned to Bremerhaven in October. Mohaupt made sure that the scientists could work safely on the ice – protected from polar bears, cold and accidents, according to Nature “.

She was surprised by the inclusion in the list, said the 37 – year-old of dpa. “I didn’t do the job alone, I worked in a team,” she emphasized. Together with her Awi colleague Bjela König, she had developed a safety concept, tested work suits and planned the logistics for the scientific equipment. “We had to decide, where is which hut on the ice floe, how much electricity do we need for the devices, how much gasoline for the snowmobiles. “She was on board the” Polarstern “for almost nine months.

Vaccine in record time Nature announced that Kathrin Jansen had been selected, because she leads a team that produces a corona vaccine in record-breaking 210 Days successfully through the clinical studies.

The “Nature’s 10” also include the US Immunologist Anthony Fauci and the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The WHO director has called the nations together to respond to the coronavirus threat. At the same time, he had to take severe criticism of the organization’s handling of the crisis. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Adern was also included in “Nature’s 10”. By acting quickly, the politician brought her country relatively safely through the Corona crisis and at the same time gained the trust of the citizens.

“Taken together, the stories of these ten people shed light on some of the greatest scientific and social challenges facing them the world had to face this year “, emphasized Rich Monastersky from” Nature “. Last year Greta Thunberg was part of “Nature’s 10”.

(anw)