Prof. Herzig has been Director and CEO of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany, since 2004. He also serves as Maritime Coordinator of the Government of the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein and was appointed Maritime Ambassador of the European Union in 2007. He is a member of a number of national and international boards and committees and a Senator of the German Science Foundation. In 2000, Peter Herzig received the prestigious Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation for his research on seafloor hydrothermal systems. He is a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering and the Saxonian Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Herzig has participated in numerous oceanographic expeditions in all oceans, several as Chief Scientist. He has experience with deep diving and remotely operated vehicles and also sailed as scientist and Chief Scientist for the Ocean Drilling Program. Peter Herzig received his Ph.D. in Geology from the Aachen University of Technology in 1986. Following an Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto, he obtained a Research Associate and Assistant Professorship at Aachen and was a Visiting Professor at the Geological Survey of Canada.

From 1993-2003, Peter Herzig was Full Professor and Chair of Economic Geology and Petrology as well as Head of the Leibniz Laboratory for Applied Marine Research at Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in Germany. He served as Dean of the Faculty for Geosciences, Geo-Engineering and Mining from 1997-1999. Following a Visiting Professorship at the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom, Peter Herzig became Full Professor at the University of Kiel in 2003.