English (United Kingdom) 
Russian (Russia) 20.07.2021
We received the tragic news from Germany about the death of Jörn Thiede. Professor Dr. Thiede was our colleague, Honorary Doctor of St. Petersburg State University, who co-founded and led the Russian-German master program POMOR for many years and was a leader of a mega-grant of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Professor Dr. Thiede belonged to a glorious generation of geologists who had laid the foundation for polar and marine geology. He collaborated with many colleagues in polar research in Russia. For many years he closely communicated with Alexander Petrovich Lisitsyn, the «patriarch» of the Russian marine geology. We had the honor to work with him for many years.
Professor Dr. Thiede did not distinguish science by nationality. He worked for the development of international polar research. We are grateful to him for his special sympathy for our Russian colleagues in the study of the Arctic. He significantly developed Russian-German polar research. Professor Dr. Thiede founded the W. Köppen laboratory at our university. For many years he gave extremely interesting lectures on the history of polar research in the POMOR program. Thanks to Professor Dr. Thiede, students from different countries in St. Petersburg have learned about the glorious traditions of the polar explorers.
Professor Dr. Thiede had the broadest erudition and encyclopedic knowledge, this is clearly seen in his «Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences», which serves as a desk book for all our colleagues. He was open to new ideas and projects, such as deep-sea drilling in the Arctic.
But the main thing is that Jörn Thiede was a real devotee of Arctic research. This is a «departing nature», the legacy of the heroic era of polar explorers-titans, to our great regret.
This is how we will remember Jörn Thiede.
Bright memory. Rest in peace.