Facade portrait: Ana Macario
Ana Macario
*1963 in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil migrated to Bremerhaven: 1996 2023 in Bremerhaven
2023 in Bremerhaven
“Of course, it was an extremely exciting environment. You sit there with renowned researchers in plate tectonics and other world-famous scientists. “
“Of course, it was an extremely exciting environment. You sit there with renowned researchers in plate tectonics and other world-famous scientists. “
“As a geophysicist, it was particularly exciting, a very refreshing and interdisciplinary environment with many scientific discussions, everything was very ‘cutting-edge’. The expectations on the students were very high, but when you are in the middle of it, you perceive it more as positive stress.”
Ana Macario earned her doctorate at Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York and fondly recalls that time. She was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – her parents had each immigrated independently from Portugal. Today she lives and works in Bremerhaven. The path here was influenced mainly by her academic career and her husband.
At 19, Ana Macario received a scholarship from the Naval Research Laboratory, which took her from Brazil to Oregon/USA. There she completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Geophysics with a focus on marine geophysics.
“Shortly thereafter, I received a scholarship to an elite university, Columbia University in New York. I actually wanted to return to Brazil, but I thought, wow, this offer is quite unique. So I decided to go to New York and do my doctoral work there.”
“Shortly after, I received a scholarship to an elite university, Columbia University in New York. I actually wanted to go back to Brazil, but I thought, wow, this offer is quite unique. So, I decided to go to New York and write my doctoral thesis there.”
While in New York, she meets her future husband, a scientist from Germany who researches physical oceanography at Columbia University. Together, they plan to move to southern Brazil after Ana Macario’s promotion and start a family. They were offered positions at the Rio Grande University. However, during a visit to Germany over Christmas 1995, an alternative presents itself, initially for her husband: he is given the opportunity to work at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven.
Ana Macario
“Everything happened very quickly in 1996. Within two months, my husband, Hartmut Hellmer, received his acceptance at AWI, and then we were in Germany. The year before, when I presented the main results of my doctoral thesis at the AGU conference in San Francisco, I met a professor from the University of Bremen who was very interested in the methodology and results of my work. He immediately offered me a position at the University of Bremen if I ever decided to move to Germany. I contacted him right away, and indeed, I got a postdoctoral position in the Department of Geosciences at the university. We arrived in Bremerhaven on June 25, 1996, and five days later, I started working there. At that time, I still didn’t speak any German.”
After the birth of her first son Hendrik, she also relocates her workplace to Bremerhaven and starts working at the computing and data center of the AWI. Bremerhaven is so far the city where she has lived the longest in one stretch. Visits to the other two important port cities in her life – to and from New York or Rio de Janeiro – regularly happen in different family constellations.
And I always find that so fantastic. My children see Brazil or the USA with completely different eyes than I do, having grown up and lived there for a long time. And I find that quite refreshing. The children can grasp it differently. My younger son Lennart lived in Michigan for a year of high school, even experiencing the Clinton-Trump election. This gave him a completely different perspective. That’s also why I have trouble identifying with just one of these three places.
I think it’s important to remain flexible and open and always try to understand the different cultures.