»We always return to the water.«
Joke Lübbecke
Prof. Lübbecke, what does the ocean mean to you?
Being in and near the water has always been very important to me – thanks to vacations as a child and the feeling of peace the ocean gives me. I’ve done a lot of swimming, even competitive swimming. I wound up in oceanography by way of physics. For a long time, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. By the last year of school, it was clear: something in the natural sciences, but not classical physics or chemistry. Then I started looking into what smaller subjects were out there. And oceanography clicked for me right away. The idea of using equations to describe the vast expanses of the sea sounded totally cool to me.
What do you enjoy more – theory or practice?
I enjoy the combination of real-world experience at sea, e.g. on expeditions, and the quantitative, the physics aspects, that you can calculate and simulate. I enjoy actually measuring things you otherwise only quantify theoretically, and vice versa. Many of my ideas come to me when I’m underway. And I don’t mean on expeditions, but when I’m bicycling or out shopping.
How would you describe your research in the most basic terms?
My work focuses on temperature fluctuations in the upper ocean. I’m interested in why some years are warmer or colder, and how these fluctuations affect our climate. Similar to our weather, there are also clearly recognizable seasons, but there are also winters that are much harsher or milder. Above all, I’m fascinated by what goes on in the tropics, like the El Niño climate phenomenon in the Pacific. It repeats ever two to seven years and has far-reaching effects on precipitation, agriculture, and even the spread of diseases.
How has climate change affected your research and your personal life?
Climate change is much more apparent now than when I started college. Many students want to better understand climate change so that they can do something about it. The main question in my research is always: When the overall situation changes, how do natural fluctuations change? Will El Niño events become more frequent or intense? That’s what I’m focusing on – and it’s also very important to me personally, since I’m trying to reconcile my privileged lifestyle with sustainability. But I have to say that finding your own individual approach isn’t easy. I’m a scientist, not an activist.
What does your average workday look like?
I’m very structured when it comes to my work; I go through weekly to-do lists, sorted by category. The day is also structured by coffee breaks. I plan out everything in writing, even my calendar. It does me a lot of good to write things down and then check them off my list. I usually have clear ideas for data analyses. But you often find that things aren’t the way you assumed. You have to stay flexible and sometimes find new paths. For me, research is always partly creative. You never know exactly how things will turn out in the end.
Did you ever make a real breakthrough?
Yes, during my dissertation. At first, I didn’t have a clear question. Then I stumbled across some manuscripts in which two sides of a phenomenon in the tropical Atlantic were always considered separately but never together. And that’s what led me to my question: Is there a connection between the Atlantic Niño and the Benguela Niño? I determined that they’re basically two elements of a single phenomenon. Many people in the research community associate me with this finding.
What has the academic world been like for you as a woman?
I’ve always received very good financial backing and have mostly been in a supportive environment. But there are differences when it comes to perceptions: Men are more likely to be praised for genius, women more for their hard work. And society’s expectations from women are still an issue – many women leave academia when they have small children, or substantially reduce their workloads, and it can be hard for them to come back later. I made the conscious choice to never switch to part-time work because my gut feeling was that you’d still have to do a full workload just to stay competitive.
How did you pull that off?
I had my first child during my dissertation and went into it with a cheerful naivete. We wanted a child and it seemed like good timing. Only later did I realize that some people thought I’d never finish my thesis. I never had any doubts. My partner is also a scientist, we’ve always supported one another. When we had our second child, he took off six months for parental leave. Today, that’s not so uncommon in the academic world.
Did you have role models or mentors?
At university, I didn’t have any female professors for math, physics, oceanography or meteorology. Today the percentage of women is much higher, and students are much more aware of aspects like diversity and privilege. But when it comes to physics, I’m often still one of just a few women in the room.
What would need to happen to get more women to study these subjects?
Mentoring programs and workshops are important, offering support and encouragement. The bigger problem lies in our society: What are our expectations from women? What childcare options are available? How are roles divided among couples with children? These are all critical points.
What advice would you give to young female researchers?
You have to jump before you feel ready! Sometimes you have to find the courage to take the next step, even if you don’t feel one hundred percent ready. Much of the time, opportunity only knocks once. Especially in the academic world, many programs are only available for a few years after you finish your Ph.D. – or you miss your window. And professorships and permanent contracts won’t pop up that often in your career; you may have to be willing to move, or to try out something new. With our first child, we went to the US twice, and each time it was a leap of faith.
What particularly motivates you?
I’m most interested in apparently small riddles – when we think we understand how things work and they turn out to be quite different. Much of the time, the major mechanisms are clear, but the details are extremely complex. Questions about the ocean are elementary. Maybe that’s why, to put it in the words of the author John von Düffel, we always return to the water.
☸
Prof. Joke Lübbecke, born in 1981, is a Professor of Physical Oceanography at the University of Bremen’s Institute of Environmental Physics. Her research focus is on ocean circulation, tropical climate variability, and the effects of climate change on the ocean.
