WORK EXPERIENCE
  • since 2024: Director of Environmental and Social Affairs, The Ocean Cleanup, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • since 2022: Founder and CEO, Empaqtify GmbH, St. Gallen, Switzerland
  • 2023 - 2024: Head of Environmental and Social Affairs, The Ocean Cleanup, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2018 - 2022: Lead Ocean Field Scientist, The Ocean Cleanup, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  • 2016 - 2017:  Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for Geomicrobiology, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • 2016:             Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • 2012 - 2016:  PhD candidate, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
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EDUCATION
  • ​2012 - 2016: PhD, Marine Biogeochemistry, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • 2009 - 2011: MSc, Environmental Sciences, Major in Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland
  • 2006 - 2009: BSc, Environmental Sciences, Major in System-oriented Studies in Aquatic Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland

EXPERTISE
  • ​Aquatic biogeochemistry (carbon and nutrients) and pollutant dynamics (plastics)
  • Field and laboratory research: Sediment coring; anoxic and oxic core slicing; porewater extraction; methane sampling; (anoxic) epoxy embedding of sediment sub-cores; neuston trawl; MOCNESS; in-situ pumps; sediment traps; CTD; isotope geochemistry; stable isotope incubations; gas chromatography; sequential chemical extractions; HF digestions; alkalinity and iodometric titrations; photo spectroscopy; micro XRF mapping; SEM-EDS; XRD; synchrotron-based X-ray adsorption spectroscopy (XAS); Raman spectroscopy; FTIR 
  • Numerical modeling: Reactive transport models (RTM); Box models
  • Academic writing and science communication
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RESEARCH EXPEDITIONS
  • North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, 20.11.-11.12.2019. Maersk Transporter (DK), as chief scientist
  • North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, 27.10.-9.12.2018. Maersk Transporter (DK), as chief scientist
  • North Atlantic, 16.6-22.6.2018. R/V Pelagia (NL)
  • Baltic Sea, 28.5-14.6.2016. R/V Pelagia (NL)
  • Bothnian Sea, 3.8.-7.8.2015, R/V Lotty (SWE)
  • Bothnian Sea, 20.4.-24.4.2015, R/V Lotty (SWE)
  • Bothnian Sea, 18.8.-24.8.2013, R/V Aranda (FIN)
  • Black Sea, 7.6.-23.6.2013, R/V Pelagia (NL)
  • Bothnian Sea, 20.8.-26.8.2012, R/V Aranda (FIN)
  • North Sea (Lake Grevelingen), multiple (>10) expeditions between 2012 and 2015, R/V Luctor (NL) and R/V Navicula (NL)
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SUPERVISION & MENTORING EXPERIENCE
MSc students:
  • Marleen Vintges (2024), "Occurrence and type of plastic ingestion in fish from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch"
  • Marjolein van Vulpen (2022/2023), "Hotspots of plastic and neuston in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch"
  • Kiri Spanowicz (2022), "The abundance and diversity of floating plastic debris and neuston in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch"
  • Britte Schilt (2021), "Diversity and abundance of plastics and neuston in the North Atlantic Ocean"
  • Hannah Kortman (2020/2021), "Using Raman spectroscopy to determine the degree of degradation (i.e. aging) of plastic debris afloat on the ocean surface"
  • Lauren Quiros (2019/2020), "Investigating the role of submesoscale eddies for the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the eastern North Pacific Ocean"
  • Marloes Schravensande (2019), "Characterizing floating marine plastic debris in the Atlantic Ocean"
  • Rein Nijhof (2019), "Buoyant plastic debris in the Gulf of Alaska"
  • Roosmarijn van Zummeren (2019), "Beaching of marine debris on a remote Pacific Island (Guam, Micronesia)"
  • Annerieke Bouwman (2018/2019), "Microplastics in marine sediments of the Mississippi River Delta (Gulf of Mexico)"
  • Dirk Jong (2015/2016), "Early diagenesis in sediments of a seasonally hypoxic coastal basin (Lake Grevelingen, the Netherlands)"
BSc students:
  • Annika Vollebregt (2015), "Anaerobic oxidation of methane and its effect on the dynamics of sulfur and iron in the sediments of Lake Grevelingen, the Netherlands"
  • Marit van Erk (2014), "Diagenetic signals of the Holocene lake-marine transition in a sediment core from the Bornholm Basin, Baltic Sea"
  • Evelien Dekker (2013-2014), "Influence of the lake/marine transition on phosphorus dynamics in Black Sea sediments below the redoxcline"
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JOURNAL REFEREE
  • Science Advances 
  • Environmental Science & Technology
  • Limnology and Oceanography
  • Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
  • Biogeosciences
  • Frontiers in Marine Science
  • Frontiers in Microbiology
  • Marine Chemistry
  • Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • Nature Sustainability
  • Environmental Science & Technology Letters
  • Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
  • Environmental Pollution

MEMBERSHIPS
  • Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working Group 153: Floating Litter and its Oceanic TranSport Analysis and Modelling (FLOTSAM)
  • European Geosciences Union

LANGUAGES
  • Swiss German: Native language
  • German: Native proficiency
  • English: Full professional proficiency
  • Dutch: Professional working proficiency
  • French: Elementary proficiency