Ann Holbourn is a researcher at the University of Kiel in Germany and Assistant Director of the IMAGES Program (International Marine Global Change Study). She received her BA in Geology and Oceanography from the Open University and her MSc and PhD from London University, where she worked on the early history of the Indian Ocean during the Cretaceous. Her main research interests center on Cretaceous and Neogene marine micropaleontology and paleoceanography, on biotic events during periods of extreme climate and on the use of benthic foraminifers as proxies for oxygenation and productivity. Her main geographical areas for research are West Africa, the northern and southern margin of Australia, southeast Asia and the southeastern Pacific margins.