Gotthilf Hempel

Gotthilf Hempel (born March 8, 1929) is a German marine biologist and oceanographer.

He then went on to work as a scientific assistant at various research institutes in Wilhelmshaven, Heligoland, and Hamburg, where he habilitated with a thesis on the ecology of fry in 1963.

In 1992, he became the first director of the then newly founded Center for Marine Tropical Ecology at this time part of University of Bremen.

From 1963 to 1967 he worked for UNESCO and the FAO and from 1990 to 1996 he was a member of the Wissenschaftsrat, the scientific advisory committee of Germany.

He has been and is an active proponent of scientific collaboration and education initiatives in underdeveloped countries, and has advocated a more sustainable exploitation of natural resources.