Detlef is a co-Chair of the SSG. He received is PhD in Physical Oceanography from Institut für Meereskunde, Kiel. In 1993 he took a post doctoral position at MIT where he stayed subsequently as Principal Resreach Scientiest. In 1999 he proceeded into a tenured faculty positions at Scripps Institut of Oceanography and University of California, San Diego. Detlef remained in America until 2003, when he returned to Germany, to take up a Professorship position at the Institut für Meereskunde of the University of Hamburg. There he is now the director oft the Center für Erdsystemforschung und Nachhaltigkeitr (CEN) oft he University of Hamburg. Some of Detlefs many research interests include the role of the ocean in climate variability and sea level change.