Lectures, posters and excursions focused on the geological period known as the Cretaceous.
Researchers from a total of 29 countries gathered from August 31 to September 5, 2025, for the 12th International Cretaceous Symposium in Hannover.
The main organizer of the conference was the Institute for Earth System Sciences (IESW) with strong support from colleagues at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). The approximately 230 participants exchanged ideas on different aspects of the chronostratigraphic system of the Cretaceous during the international symposium.
- Conference report: Research on the Cretaceous in times of climate change – conference presented new insights
- Website International Cretaceous Symposium 2025
Research awards for young scientists
The conference featured scientific presentations in the main building of LUH and a poster exhibition in the atrium, where attendees could study the latest scientific findings. In addition, the following Early Career Scientists Awards were presented:
- Best Student Poster Award: Die Lithium isotopic composition of Late Cretaceous seawater: Implications for a correlation between climate, weathering and sea level fall
Sandra Janina Huber – Institute of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany; Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany - Best Student Oral Award: Inner-continental paleotemperature estimates based on brGDGT analyses from lignites (Aptian-Albian, Mongolia)
Fritz-Lukas Stoepke – Institute of Earth System Sciences (IESW), section Geology, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany - Best Early Career Scientist Poster Award: Trace metal and nickel isotope evolution of the ocean since the Cretaceous
Mingzhao Sun – Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland - Best Early Career Scientist Oral Award: Biotic and environmental perturbations during the OAE 1a in the Southern Iberian Palaeomargin (western Tethys): Insights from organic and inorganic proxies
Cristina Sequero – Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Fritz-Lukas Stoepke, a doctoral candidate at the IESW (Sedimentology, Stratigraphy and Palynology Group | Prof. Dr. Ulrich Heimhofer), received one of the awards. As part of his dissertation, he is working on a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which focuses on reconstructing paleotemperatures for intracontinental Asia during the Early Cretaceous. In this research, he utilizes the occurrence and distribution of fossil biomolecules (biomarkers) found in terrestrial lignite deposits in present-day Mongolia.
