Tim Pöppel has joined the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute as a Carlo Schmid-Program  fellow for 2025/-26. He holds a Bachelor of Law from Bucerius Law School in Hamburg as  well as bachelor’s degree in political sciences from University of Hamburg. After finishing the  fellowship, he will take the first jurisprudential state exam in April 2026 and pursue a master’s  degree in International Governance and Diplomacy afterwards.

At GOI, Tim is part of the “Future Ocean Program” where he provides project, outreach and  research support to the team and the Principal Investigator, focusing on Non-State Actors and  Rights-based Approaches to Ocean Protection. He is particularly interested in maritime  infrastructure, with a special emphasis on the regime governing pipelines, cables and deep  seabed-mining.

His interest in those topics came from his bachelor's thesis in law, which he wrote about the  legal assessment of the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Prior to joining WMU, Tim worked as a research assistant at trûon lawyers, specializing in  environmental and planning law. He is also responsible for the administration of the Young  Northern Regional Group of the German Association of the United Nations, where he focuses  on youth representation in international relations.