Angelika Brandt is a German marine zoologist specializing in the taxonomy, systematics, ecology, and evolution of deep-sea and polar invertebrates, particularly Isopoda. She became full professor at the University of Hamburg in 1995, serving at the Zoological Museum as curator of Crustacea and Polychaeta and later as deputy director and director (2004–2009). Since 2017, she has led Marine Zoology, including Crustacea and Ichthyology, in collaboration with the Senckenberg Research Institute.
Brandt has played a leading role in international deep-sea research. Within the Census of the Marine Life, she contributed to CAML and CeDAMar and coordinated the ANDEEP expeditions to Antarctica, documenting the remarkable biodiversity of Southern Ocean deep-sea fauna. International expeditions to the Northwest Pacific and Arctic greatly expanded accessible deep-sea data. Her recent work focuses on evolutionary drivers such as connectivity and dispersal barriers, as well as improved deep-sea sampling methods.
Her achievements have been widely recognized, including the National Geographic Society’s Adventurer of the Year (2007), the SCAR Medal for Excellence in Polar Science (2008), the Carlo Heip Excellence Award in Marine Biodiversity (2023), and the JSPS International Prize for Biology (2024). Brandt also serves on international scientific committees, contributing for over 38 years to advancing global understanding of deep-sea biodiversity.
