I am a marine biogeochemist, working on the nitrogen cycle, and especially on the processes that produced the greenhouse gas and ozone depleting agent, nitrous oxide. This work is relevant, for instance for understanding the controls on aquatic nitrous oxide production and how to mitigate its emissions. Nitrous oxide is almost 300 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and since the Industrial Revolution, the N₂O atmospheric concentration has been increasing at an unprecedented rate. N₂O is likely to be the single most important anthropogenically emitted ozone-depleting agent in the 21^st century.

I am working in natural and anthropogenically impacted environments, like the Baltic Sea, Chesapeake Bay and the large oceanic oxygen minimum zones (called OMZs) in the eastern tropical north and south Pacific to understand what factors influence the N₂O cycling processes and the communities and why. The oceans represent significant N₂O sources,accounting for more than one third of all natural emissions and this source may increase substantially as a result of eutrophication, warming, and ocean acidification.

Education and Professional Experience

• March 2018 – present: Research Assistant, Department of Environmental Sciences, Biogeochemistry Group, University of Basel, Switzerland
• Nov 2016 – Feb 2018: DAAD P.R.I.M.E. Fellow and Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Geoscience, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA
• May 2016 – Oct 2016: Research Associate, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Seestrasse 15, 18119 Rostock
• May 2010 – May 2015: PhD Candidate, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Seestrasse 15, 18119 Rostock; title: „From stable isotopes in the environment to process understanding: Exploring nitrate sinks and sources in the Baltic Sea “
• Mar 2014 – June 2014: Research Assistant, Department of Environmental Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
• 2004 – 2010: Diploma in Biology, University of Rostock