Karen Helen Wiltshire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1962 (age 62–63) Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Alma mater | University of Hamburg Trinity College Dublin |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Environmental science |
| Institutions | University of Bremen |
Karen Helen Wiltshire (born 1962) is an Irish and German Climate and Marine Scientist. She is Professor of Climate Science at Trinity College Dublin and a Professor of Shelf-Ecosystems at the University of Kiel in Germany. Karen was one of the first women in a Directorate of a Helmholtz Institute in Germany, becoming Vice Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) 2006-2024. [1]
Born in Dublin, Wiltshire studied at Maynooth University and Trinity College Dublin and graduated with a Master's degree in Environmental science. She received her PhD (1992) and Habilitation (2001) in Hydrobiology at the University of Hamburg. Her career has spanned leadership roles in major international scientific institutions - GKSS Geesthacht , the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, University of Groningen, Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute of Limnology, Germany. She was appointed Professor of Geomicrobiology at Jacobs University, Germany in 2006. [2] In her research capacity she rescued the renowned North Sea "Helgoland Roads Time Series" linking the immense data set to international data bases and models and showing marine ecosystem change due to climate and environmental factors.
Karen Wiltshire co-founded Scientists for Future in Germany and took part in a statement at the Bundespressekonferenz in March 2019. [3] She has helped shape national and international science policy contributing to UNEP, SCOR-UNESCO, IPCC, IIASA, ICES and as a lead coordinating author for GEO07 Ocean and Coasts. She was the first female chair of POGO (Partnership for Observations in the Global Oceans).
Karen Wiltshire is a tireless advocate for international sea-going capacity building. She co-founded the Ocean Training Partnership with POGO and co-founded the All-Atlantic Sea Network for training early career ocean professionals. She was the Director of the NIPPON-POGO Centre for Excellence for Oceanography for 10 Years.
She and her colleagues inspire collaborative, science-based solutions to the pressing climate-related challenges of our time, based on the premise that diversity in communication and working towards positive outcomes for oceans and coasts is key to the global future.
In 2024, Wiltshire was appointed as the Professor of Climate Science in Trinity College Dublin and holds the CRH Chair of Climate Science. [4]
In 2025, she was made a fellow of Trinity College Dublin. [5]
