Sandra Hochscheid

Department of Marine Animal Conservation and Public Engagement, Anton Dohrn Zoological Station

Born in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, on April 13, 1973, Sandra Hochscheid began her studies in Biology at the University of Marburg, and then moved to Kiel to specialize in marine biology.

For her thesis, she spent a summer in Cyprus studying the behavior of sea turtles during the breeding season. Thanks to a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, obtained in 1999, she continued her studies on sea turtles with a PhD at the Department of Zoology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and, for the practical part, at the aquarium of the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station in Naples. During her doctoral work, she also had the opportunity to collaborate on field research both in Lambert's Bay in South Africa for a study on the thermoregulation of young gannets, and in Heron Island in Australia for a study on the energy consumption of green turtles in nature.

In 2001 he began working for the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station, specializing in the field of bio-logging, the study of animal behavior in nature through electronic devices such as satellite transmitters. He dedicates a large part of his work to the rescue and conservation of marine turtles injured due to human activities.

Since 2013, she has been in charge of the Marine Turtle Research Center and since 2015 she has become a Member of the IUCN - Species Survival Commission - Marine Turtle Specialist Group, for which she was appointed Regional Vice Chair for the Mediterranean in 2016.

In 2019, she was awarded by the International Salerno Medical School with the Trotula Prize dedicated to women who have distinguished themselves in the fields of art, culture, and research. She is the author of numerous international publications and an Associate Editor for two international scientific journals.

Among his most recent research interests, we find the impact of climate change on the distribution and behavior of marine turtles.