Teaching and Research
As an environmental bio-geochemist and mineralogist I take a strong interdisciplinary approach to study low temperature environmental terrestrial and aquatic processes by combining experimental and field approaches. The aim of my research is to elucidate how the geosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere interact to shape the Earth’s terrestrial surface, now often termed the Critical Zone (CZ). This Critical Zone can be thought of as the skin of the earth: the terrestrial surface spans from the top of the canopy down to the bedrock - including ground water - and provides us with water, nutrients and many other ecosystem services.
My current overall research goal is to elucidate how low-temperature aquatic and terrestrial biogeochemical processes are impacted by disturbances linked to global environmental change. For this I look at metals, dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in soils and streams with a combination of analytical tools (C-Analyzer, ICP-OES, Ion Chromatography, UVvis-, fluorescence- and FTIR-spectroscopy) and computational quantification (PARAFAC analysis of fluorescence data).
I enjoy teaching geochemistry (GEOL135, GEOL 235, GEOL 371) and Earth materials (GEOL110) in the lab, field and classroom and I supervise research projects (GEOL198).