Reflecting on growing up in the coastal city of Rostock in what was then known as East Germany, Dr. Katja Fennel describes the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 as “the most significant event of my life. Opportunities, possibilities, outlooks — everything changed.”
Having just finished high school when the wall came down, she attended her hometown University of Rostock to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a PhD in oceanography before taking advantage of her newfound freedom of movement and heading abroad to advance her research career.
It’s safe to say she has since made her mark. This week, Dr. Fennel, a professor and former chair of Dalhousie’s Department of Oceanography, was named in the Royal Society of Canada’s (RSC) 2026 Class of Fellows, an honour reserved for the country’s most distinguished scholars, artists, and scientists.
“I am grateful for the recognition, grateful to have worked with so many wonderful students and colleagues, and grateful to my peers who nominated and selected me for this honour,” says Dr. Fennel, who joined Dalhousie University 20 years ago in August.
“These individuals are shaping Canadian society through their scholarship, creativity, and impact — today and into the years ahead,” said RSC President and Dal bioethicist Dr. Françoise Baylis in the announcement.
Understanding the ocean
The RSC recognized Dr. Fennel for “innovative and pivotal advances in our understanding of marine ecosystems, oceanic biogeochemical cycles, and anthropogenic threats to the oceans, through the development and use of innovative mathematical models and the pioneering use of remote underwater sensing data.”
Dr. Fennel is the lead principal investigator on the Ocean Alk-Align Project, which received nearly $15 million in support from the Carbon to Sea Initiative in 2023 to explore whether ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) can bolster the ocean’s capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere despite increased ocean acidification from fossil fuels.
While emphasizing that carbon dioxide removal is not a substitute for emission reductions — “clean energy technology exists and is proven at scale,” she says — Dr. Fennel is proud of the “world leading” work her research team is pursuing in Halifax Harbour with climate-tech startup Planetary.
“No other site is as far advanced,” she says, noting the first-ever and, to date, only carbon credits for OAE were issued to Planetary in June 2025.
Searching for solutions
The fight against climate change is at the heart of Dr. Fennel’s work, which includes bringing ocean science to grade school classrooms through the Adopt-a-Float program.
“I am motivated to dedicate my energy to researching whether OAE technology can, one day, be used at a climate-relevant scale because so much anthropogenic carbon dioxide has already accumulated in the atmosphere that we need to find ways to remove and safely store this fossil-fuel carbon,” she says, before adding a few words of warning.
“I think it’s hard for people who aren’t climate scientists to fathom how much trouble we’re really in with regard to global warming and its consequences.”