Function and Responsibilities:

• Senior Scientist 
• Head of the X-ray laboratory: analyzing minerals and major elements by x-ray diffraction and x-ray fluorescence (XRD/XRF) 
• Managing the clay mineralogy laboratory 

The mineralogy labs are part of the ElMiE-labs (Elements and Minerals of the Earth), where I am mainly responsible for the "mineral" part. My analytical expertise lies in applying various techniques to analyse the bulk mineral composition of rocks, and specifically clay minerals

Research Interests:

• Mineralogical and geochemical fluid-rock interaction in the upper crust
• Influence of clay minerals on the seismic behavior of fault zones
• Diagenesis and low grade metamorphism in different geological settings
• Clay formation processes in ore deposits 
• Dating fault zones
• The role of clay minerals in nuclear waste repositories

Career:

2015–present            Senior Scientist, GFZ Potsdam, Germany

2008-2014                 Scientist at University of Michigan, USA

2005-2007                 Post-doc University of Würzburg and University of Erlangen, Germany

Education:

2018               Habilitation in Geology, University of Potsdam, Germany

2005               PhD in Geology, University of Heidelberg, Germany

2001               Diploma in Geology, University of Heidelberg, Germany

Projects:

• Side project in IPOC Creep: Monitoring seismic and silent faulting along the Atacama Fault System, N-Chile 
  • Clay mineral formation in reactivated upper crustal faults of the Atacama fault system (GFZ)

• Side project in slow sliding of volcanic flanks as PREcursor to catastrophic COLLAPSE 
  • Clay mineral formation and flank instability of Mount Etna (Geomar)

• Side project in calibration of the high-resolution archive for past extreme events recorded in Lake Hallstatt, Austria 
  • Clay mineral formation (University of Insbruck, Austria)

• Side project in grain size distribution, elemental and mineralogical composition of Quaternary Vega sediments on the eastern Canary Islands 
  • Major -and trace element distribution (University of Dresden, Germany)

• Relating physical properties from geophysical downhole logging with clay mineralogy from drill core samples of the ICDP Lake Junin drilling project 
  • DFG SPP1006 (GFZ)

• Integrity of nuclear waste repository systems -cross-scale system understanding and analysis (icross Zukunftsthemen 2017)

The projects mainly contribute to Topic 8 (Georessources) and Topic 3 (Restless Earth)