Function and Responsibilities:

Scienfitic staff (PostDoc) in the Inorganic and Isotope Geochemistry section 3.1

Co-maintainer of X-ray diffractometry lab of Interface Geochemistry Section 3.5

First aid worker Section 3.1

Research Interests:

PostDoc project:
As part of the DFG-funded DOME project, I am investigating the formation history of volcanogenic sulphide deposits (VMS deposits). These deposits often show not only hydrothermal alteration, but also low-metamorphic overprinting. Using petrography and geochemical analyses, such as LA-ICP MS, I investigate the accessory phases both in the ore bodies and in their host rocks proximal and distal to the orebody. Geochemical patterns and textural relationships of zircons, monazites, rutiles, and other phosphates and Ti phases provide information on hydrothermal, volcanogenic or metamorphic origin and can thus be used as typical “markers” for the processes in sulphide deposits.

Doctoral project

In my doctoral project I investigated the nucleation and growth kinetics of the phosphate mineral struvite (MgNH₄PO₄*6H₂O). Struvite occurs in sewage sludge systems, guano-rich soils, and in human and animal kidney stones (so-called infectious stones). Previous studies investigated the formation conditions of struvite, particularly in wastewater, to avoid clogging pipelines and to recover the precipitates to use as phosphorus- and nitrogen-rich fertilizer.
I was studying nucleation and crystal growth in the pure (NH₄)₂HPO₄ - MgCl₂*6H₂O system with UV-Vis turbidity measurements and monitoring of pH during struvite synthesis in solution. Little is known about the temperature dependence of formation, so I perform the experiments at various temperatures in the low-temperature range.
Under atmospheric conditions, struvite is unstable and transforms in air into the phases newberyite (MgPO₃(OH)*3H₂O) and dittmarite (MgNH₄PO₄*H₂O). Using ex-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) of powder samples and Rietveld analyses, I determine the kinetic rates of this process and the influence of temperature. Optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy of single crystals gave me information about textural relationships transformation phases to struvite. For the use as fertilizer, knowledge about the transformation of struvite is important, since nitrogen is lost in the process.  For further information see also struvite crystallization.

Additional projects:
X-ray analysis of zinc yeast samples in cooperation with the TU Berlin.

Career:

2024 - recent: PostDoc, section 3.1, German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam

2020 - 2024: PhD student, section 3.5, German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam

2017 - 2020:    Research assistant, petrology working group, Ruhr University Bochum

2017:                 Student assistant, petrology working group, Ruhr University Bochum

Education:

2017 - 2020:  M.Sc. Geosciences, majoring petrology, Ruhr University Bochum

                          Topic of master's thesis: "Carbonate minerals associated with the volcano-sedimentary iron-
                           ores of the Lahn-Dill type: A petrographic and geochemical study"

2013 - 2017:  B.Sc. Geosciences, Ruhr University Bochum

                          Topic of bachelor's thesis: "Petrographie und Geochemie an Metapeliten der Buchan-Zone in Nordost-Schottland"

Research Boards and Committees:

2021 - recent: Member of the "Young Mineralogists" junior group of the German Mineralogical Society to support students and young
                     researchers in the fields of  geochemistry, mineralogy, crystallography and petrology in their professional careers

11/2021 - 02/2023: GeoGraduate representative GFZ Potsdam

2017 - recent: Member of the German Mineralogical Society (DMG)

Awards:

2023 | Young Scientist Award 2023 received from the German Mineralogical Society

2022 | Receiver of bursary for Zurich School of Crystallography 2022