The European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) has awarded Prof. Liane G. Benning, head of the Interface Geochemistry Section at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the “Distinguished Lectureship” as an outstanding lecturer. As part of this lecture programme in 2025, she will give lectures in four Eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, on topics such as the fight between kinetics and thermodynamics at Earth surface conditions as well as how microbes, minerals and ions change our planet today and in future warmer climates. 

After Prof. Sarah A. Gleeson, Benning is the second GFZ scientist in a row to be honoured by the European Association of Geochemistry with the Distinguished Lectureship award. Gleeson received the Distinguished Lectureship award in 2024.

About the EAG Distinguished Lecture Program

The EAG Distinguished Lecture Program focuses on Central and Eastern Europe and aims to introduce and motivate scientists and students located in under-represented regions of the world to emerging research areas in geochemistry. The Distinguished Lecturer is selected each year based on a combination of outstanding research contributions to geochemistry and the ability to clearly communicate these contributions to a broad audience.

About the person

The geochemist Liane G. Benning has been heading the “Interface Geochemistry” section at the GFZ since 2014. She has been a professor at Freie Universität Berlin since 2016. Previous stages of her scientific career included ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Pennsylvania State University in the USA, and the University of Leeds in the UK. Her research focusses on extremophile microbes on glaciers and in snow, mineral formation and breakdown and microscopic characterization of geo-bio-materials. Her team and her conduct research in the laboratory but also in polar settings like Greenland.

Further Informationen to the lectures: 

8-9 April - Romania, Bucharest

7-9 June - Hungary, Sopron

14 - 20 June - Poland

You can find more information to the topics of the events here, as soon as they are made public.