ASLO Honors Barbara Bayer with the 2026 Raymond L. Lindeman Award

DOME | CeMESS

DOME | CeMESS Assistant Professor Barbara Bayer has been awarded the 2026 Raymond L. Lindeman Award by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). Congratulations, Barbara!

Since 1987, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) has presented the Raymond L. Lindeman Award annually to an early career aquatic scientist in recognition of an outstanding, peer‑reviewed, English‑language paper that makes a notable contribution to aquatic science. “The 2026 Lindeman Award will be given to Dr. Barbara Bayer for her 2023 paper, ‘Carbon content, carbon fixation yield and dissolved organic carbon release from diverse marine nitrifiers,’ published in Limnology and Oceanography. Dr. Bayer’s work on chemoautotrophic microorganisms and their contribution to the marine dissolved organic carbon pool represents a major step forward in understanding carbon cycling in deep ocean ecosystems. Dr. Bayer will accept the award at the 2027 Aquatic Sciences Meeting to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico (28 February – 5 March, 2027)”, says the ASLO in a press release.

Babara Bayer received her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 2019 and is currently Assistant Professor at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) at the University of Vienna. In this paper, Barbara advances our quantitative understanding of how marine nitrifying microorganisms contribute to the ocean carbon cycle. By measuring carbon fixation, cellular elemental content, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) release across a diverse group of marine nitrifiers, she demonstrates that these microbes consistently release a significant fraction (about 5–15%) of the carbon they fix as DOC during active growth. This work shows that DOC release is an inherent metabolic feature rather than a laboratory artifact and delivers critical constraints on carbon fixation efficiency for key nitrifying groups. Together, these findings reveal an important, previously overlooked microbial source of organic carbon in the dark ocean and substantially improve how coupled nitrogen and carbon cycling are represented in marine biogeochemical models.

CeMESS/Ludwig Schedl

ASLO President Susanne Menden-Deuer states “Dr. Bayer’s work represents a major step forward to our understanding of how chemoautotrophic microorganisms influence the oceanic carbon cycle and provides important insight into microbial controls on ocean biogeochemistry. We are excited to recognize Dr. Bayer’s contributions and look forward to her continued contributions to aquatic science.”

About ASLO 

ASLO is an international aquatic science society that was founded in 1948. For more than 70 years, it has been the leading professional organization for researchers and educators in the field of aquatic science. The purpose of ASLO is to foster a diverse, international scientific community that creates, integrates and communicates knowledge across the full spectrum of aquatic sciences, advances public awareness and education about aquatic resources and research, and promotes scientific stewardship of aquatic resources for the public interest. Its products and activities are directed toward these ends. With 3,000 members worldwide, the society has earned an outstanding reputation and is best known for its journals, interdisciplinary meetings, and special symposia. For more information about ASLO, please visit our website at www.ASLO.org.

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