Dr. Ina Tamara Tessnow-von Wysocki
Research Associate
Phone
Dr. Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki is Research Associate in the Ocean Governance Research Group at the Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ (RIFS), Potsdam, Germany, as part of the JPI-Oceans' MiningImpact 3 project. Her research investigates how an ecosystem‑based management (EBM) approach can be implemented within the international regime of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for regulating deep-sea mining.
She is also an Individual Consultant with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) on the topic of the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ-Agreement).
She was an Ocean Nexus Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian National Center for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), where her research focused on international ocean governance in areas beyond national jurisdiction with a focus on fisheries, deep-sea mining and marine biodiversity governance.
Dr. Tessnow-von Wysocki completed a PhD at the University of Vienna, in the MARIPOLDATA ERC project, on the topic science–policy interfaces for ocean protection within the United Nations negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
She holds a B.A. in Politics, International Relations and Asian Studies from Griffith University, Australia, a M.A. of International Relations from the joint program at Humboldt University Berlin, Freie University and University of Potsdam, Germany, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Vienna, Austria. Throughout her academic career she has undertaken research at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada and the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Spain. She received the German scholarship for Climate Impact Research (Deutschlandstipendium) and the scholarship of the University Alliance for Sustainability.
With her academic background in international relations and professional experience in climate and foreign policy with the German government, the GIZ, and NGOs, in Europe, North America, Oceania and Latin America, she specialises in international cooperation on environmental issues.
Groups
- IOC-UNESCO Consultant, Marine Policy and Regional Coordination
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Reseources and Security (ANCORS), Australia
- PhD Student at the University of Vienna in the ERC Project MARIPOLDATA (The Politics of Marine Biodiversity Data: Global and National Policies and Practices of Monitoring the Oceans), Austria
- Master in International Relations at Freie University Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, and University Potsdam, Germany
- Bachelor in Politics, International Relations and Asian Studies from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
- Ocean Governance
- Marine Biodiversity
- Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
- Deep Sea Mineral Resource Governance
- Intergovermental Negotiations
- Human-Ocean Relationship
Selected Publications prior to joining the RIFS
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Tessnow-von Wysocki, I. & Hanich, Q. (2026). Ocean equity for whom? Non-humans as ocean equity subjects. In The Elgar Companion to Ocean Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803923574.00033
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Tessnow-von Wysocki, I., Vadrot, A.B.M. (2024) Pathways of scientific input into intergovernmental negotiations: a new agreement on marine biodiversity. Int Environ Agreements 24, 325–348 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-024-09642-0
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Tessnow-von Wysocki, I. et al. (2023). Plastics treaty text must center ecosystems.Science. 382,525-526. DOI:10.1126/science.adl3202
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Tessnow-von Wysocki, I. & Vadrot A.B.M. (2020) The Voice of Science on Marine Biodiversity Negotiations: A Systematic Literature Review. Front. Mar. Sci. 7: 614282. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2020.614282
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Tessnow-von Wysocki, I. & Le Billion, P. (2019). Plastics at sea: Treaty design for a global solution to marine plastic pollution. Environmental Science & Policy. Vol. 100, pp. 94-104. DOI:10.1016/j.envsci.2019.06.005
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Side Event at the 22nd Meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, Topic: WCPFC and the BBNJ Agreement, December 1st, 2025, Manila, Phillippines, hosted by ANCORS & Australia.
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Side Event at the Second BBNJ Preparatory Commission Meeting, "Fisheries and the BBNJ Agreement", August 25, 2025, New York, USA, hosted by: the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, New Zealand, the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.
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Award of Excellence (2024) - Austrian National Award for the best dissertations
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Impact Award (2023) - funded by the City of Vienna funded for dissertation projects with the potential to reach target groups outside the academic community
*German scholarship for Climate Impact Research