Marine biolo­gist and Hector Fellow Antje Boetius has been elected a member of the presti­gious Order Pour le Mérite. The theolo­gian Christoph Markschies and singer-songwriter and poet Wolf Biermann also joined the Order.

Induc­tion into the Order is among the highest honors for scien­tists and artists in Germany. The Order now includes 36 German and 37 inter­na­tional members, among them 17 Nobel laureates.

Founded in 1842 by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, with Alexan­der von Humboldt as its first chancel­lor, the Order was revived in 1952 and is today under the patron­age of the Federal President.