Ceremonial award ceremony when professors recieved the Baltic Sea Prize

Jacob Carstensen and Daniel Conley were awarded with the Björn Carlsons Baltic Sea Prize 2023, presented by the crown princess Victoria.

ImageAXL Media AB, Andreas Sundbom

Jenny Ask, how was the ceremony?

"It was fantastic, and I felt very honored to be part of the ceremony. The Foundation aims for the award to be like a Nobel prize for the Baltic Sea, and it truly was ceremonial in the Hall of Mirrors, where also the very first Nobel Prize award ceremony took place. It was gorgeous with all the gold, crystal chandeliers and ceiling paintings everywhere."

Jenny Ask, researcher and environmental analyst at Umeå Marine Sciences Centre.

ImageAXL Media AB

This year, the prize went to Jacob Carstensen and Daniel Conley. Why them?

"They have worked closely together for many years and contributed with ground-breaking insights on eutrophication, water quality and oxygen depletion, and also the underlying biogeochemical processes, in the Baltic Sea. The fact that they received the award together also highlights the importance of collaboration, across all possible boundaries. If you find the right collaborator, the results can really grow exponentially, as Carstensen and Conley have so clearly shown."

In what role were you invited?

"I am part of Björn Carlson's Baltic Fellows, a group of 22 selected researchers from the countries around the Baltic Sea who all focus on the Baltic Sea and its environment. I, together with Agnes Karlsson (Stockholm University) and Petter Tibblin (Linnaeus University), are "Founding fellows" and have the task of coordinating the whole group. The purpose of the Fellows group is to facilitate and promote collaboration, both between different research areas and between different countries. An important goal for us Fellows is to create public opinion about the Baltic Sea and its problems, but also about possible solutions to those problems."

Facts: The Björn Carlson's Baltic Sea Prize

The prize was established by Björn Carlson's Baltic Sea Foundation – BalticSea2020. The annual prize money is SEK 3 million and is to be awarded to researchers or other persons who have contributed to the work for a better Baltic Sea environment. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2022 and was then awarded to Professor Maren Voss at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde, Germany.

Read more about Jacob Carstensen's and Daniel Conley's research:
https://bcop.se/prizewinners/

Read more about Björn Carlsons Baltic Fellows:
https://bcop.se/baltic-sea-fellows/