Professor Surabhi Ranganathan (King's College) has been awarded the prestigious Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award 2025, a prize of 1.5 million euros. The award recognizes her groundbreaking work on ocean governance and the law of the sea, particularly its political challenges. The award ceremony will take place in Berlin on December 2.
The Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award is a joint initiative of the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. It is given to outstanding international researchers for their exceptional academic achievements. Supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the award alternates between the natural and engineering sciences, life sciences, and the humanities and social sciences.
The race for ocean resources
Professor Ranganathan's research focuses on the growing competition for deep-sea resources, like the manganese nodules found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico. These nodules are rich in manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements, making them highly valuable to the electronics and energy industries. Currently, the international law of the sea successfully protects this sensitive deep-sea ecosystem from exploitation by commercial companies.
An interdisciplinary approach to International Law
For Professor Ranganathan, the race for these resources is a lens through which to examine international law, geopolitical interests, and the lingering effects of colonization. A lawyer currently researching at the University of Cambridge, she has spent years studying the legal frameworks of deep-sea mining, global competition, and fair collaboration. Her work also explores the libertarian ideals found within modern economic systems.
Her unique, interdisciplinary approach - combining international law with history and political science - was noted as being exceptionally novel, timely, and highly relevant to society.
With the prize money, Professor Ranganathan plans to launch a project called "Ways of Worldmaking: The Global South and the (Re)Imagination of Global Ocean Governance". In collaboration with HU Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, the project will re-examine the law of the sea from a global perspective, with a focus on decolonization.
Responding to her award, Professor Ranganathan said:
"I am grateful and excited to have this opportunity to call attention to contemporary and historical currents of creative legal intellection and worldmaking in regions around the Indian Ocean. Much of the prize money will go towards establishing post-doctoral fellowships in Berlin, and I look forward to advertising these next spring."