Double expertise: Two new directors join the MPI for Marine Microbiology

Sep 17, 2026

Climate scientist Tatiana Ilyina and ecologist Jean-Baptiste Raina will be strengthening our executive board and expanding our research from spring 2026. They were officially welcomed in an inauguration ceremony on September 17, 2026. We are very happy to welcome them and look into our shared future with confidence and joy!

It is big step for the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and marine research in Germany: Two new directors have made their way to Bremen to join our board of directors and initiate a generational change. The climate scientist Tatiana Ilyina and the ecologist Jean-Baptiste Raina, both highly renowned in their fields, will add their expertise to the current know-how at our institute to broaden our research focus and adapt to current challenges in marine research.

The official inauguration of the two new directors took place the Max Planck Institute in Bremen on September 17, 2026. Following a welcome note by managing director Prof. Dr. Rudolf Amann, managing director of the Max Planck Institute in Bremen the full auditorium heard honorary talks by Karolina Kumar, Deputy Minister for the Environment, Climate, and Science of the State of Bremen, Dr. Mandy Boehnke, Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity of the University of Bremen, and Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society. Subsequently, the new directors presented their fields of research in scientific talks.

Gruppenbild — Marcel Kuypers (Director), Rudolf Amann (Director), Bo Barker Jörgensen (former and founding Director), Patrick Cramer (President of the MPG), Tatiana Ilyina (new Director), JB Raina (new Director), Nicole Dubilier (Director), Gotthilf Hempel ©Kerstin Rolfes

A warm welcome

“We are proud to have attracted these great recruits”, says Rudolf Amann. “Over the last months, I have come to know both of them as friendly colleagues. They will lead the institute into a bright future and together we will conduct outstanding and important research.”

“These vocations at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen are an important contribution to ensuring that Bremen remains a centre of marine scientific excellence”, Karolina Kumar emphasized.

“It is great to see how warm the new directors are welcomed here in Bremen, their start marks a new era for this institute”, Patrick Cramer noted.

Across all scales

From global modelling to molecular communication – the two new departments will span many orders of magnitude. While Ilyina will focus on integrating the latest findings from microbiology into Earth system models, Raina’ s research will centre on microbial interactions and their impacts on marine ecosystems.

“Our work will help to better understand the carbon cycle in the ocean and its role in our climate”, says Tatiana Ilyina, who has started establishing the Department of Ocean Biosphere Dynamics this spring. “I am genuinely excited to bring together my expertise in modelling with emerging directions in marine microbiology at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen. The Bremen area feels like the ideal place for this work.”

Jean-Baptiste Raina and his team will focus on the interactions between marine organisms and their microbial symbionts at the micrometre scale. “My Department of Chemical Ecology aims to identify key microbial interactions, measure their effects at the single-cell level, and evaluate how they impact marine ecosystems. I cannot think of a better place to continue my exploration of these questions than Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity and I’m really excited about what lies ahead”, says Raina.

In their departments, Ilyina and Raina will also mentor young scientists and help launch the next generation of researchers, thus contributing to the growth of our institute and marine research in Bremen, as well as introducing and establishing state-of-the-art research trends.