Dr Paul Overduin

Dr Paul Overduin is a senior scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Potsdam, Germany, where he studies permafrost and what happens to it when it ends up beneath the ocean.

His particular interest lies in understanding submarine permafrost distribution and how it changes in response, in particular, to climate warming.  He has led expeditions to various polar regions, heads a water chemistry laboratory at AWI and co-coordinates the EU’s Horizon 2020 project Nunataryuk: Permafrost thaw and the changing Arctic coast, science for socioeconomic adaptation and the Helmholtz project MOSES: Modular Observations Solutions for Earth Systems.

The CACOON project studies the flux of offshore material from onshore to offshore aquatic systems, and its transformation underway.  Dr Overduin provides full support and mentoring to CACOON and helps in the planning and supervision of field and laboratory work.  Through his work on coastal dynamics, he provides and analyzes relevant data from the physical environment in the coastal zone, such as changing sea ice and shallow oceanographic conditions.

CACOON is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and by NERC.