Water isotopes (hydrogen and oxygen) found in speleothem fluid inclusions provide direct information on past precipitation and moisture source changes. Techniques being used at the University of Basel allow to extract this water and analyse their stable isotope compositions (dD and d¹⁸O) with the main objective to estimate paleotemperature. Therefore, combined with the robust dating of speleothems, they have great potential as proxies to examine paleoclimate ranging from the Holocene up to the Pleistocene time intervals. However, there are large regional discrepancies found between current paleoclimate records and temperature estimates that need to be resolved.

Through my PhD project I will create water isotope and paleotemperature records covering several glacial and interglacial intervals for the alpine foreland and alpine region during the Holocene and Pleistocene in Central Europe. For this I will develop data from fluid inclusion waters and calcite stable isotopes from speleothems collected in Switzerland and neighbouring countries.

Educational Background and Professional Experience

• From Oct 2022: PhD student at the Quaternary Geology Group from Prof. Dominik Fleitmann, University of Basel
• Aug 2022: Geneva Summer School: Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes, University of Geneva
• Jan 2019 – Jan 2022: Master of Science in Geoscience, University of Basel
• Feb 2020 – Dec 2020: Student trainee, Bfm Umwelt GmbH, Munich
• Jun 2018 – Jul 2021: Student trainee, temporary assignments at the US Army training area Hohenfels (Environmental Division), LGA Institut für Umweltgeologie und Altlasten GmbH, Nuremberg
• Aug 2015 – Dec 2018: Bachelor of Science in Geoscience, University of Basel
• Apr 2017 – May 2018: Scientific employee, University Basel