Reinhard Dankert was born in Rostock, German Democratic Republic, on October 27, 1951. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in 1976 from the Faculty of Technical Electronics of the Wilhelm-Pieck-Uulversität-Rostock, Rostock.In 1976 he joined the Institute for Marine Research of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR at Rostock-Warnemünde. There he is working at the development, production, and calibration of conductivity sensors.