ESR15 Charikleia Gournia Expands Knowledge with Training at JRC Ispra and Secondment at MIT
Charikleia Gournia (ESR 15) had the opportunity to visit the Joint Research Centre in Ispra and learn more about the EDGAR inventory as part of a very beneficial training organized by Dr. Marilena Muntean. She then visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her major secondment. “Two months are short, but they were the most important of my PhD thanks to professor Noelle Selin. I feel the need to thank the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for allowing me to benefit from a network-wide training", she said.
ESR14 Koketso's Dynamic Year: From GMOS-Train Events to Secondments and International Conferences
2023 was a busy year for Koketso (ESR14). The year kicked off with the month-long GMOS-Train Modeling Winter School & Hackathon organized by Dr. Johannes Bieser from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon. The event was hosted mostly in Hamburg, Germany, which she currently calls home. The fellow ESRs Alkuin (ESR1), Natalia (ESR4), Alina (ESR5), Isabel (ESR6), Sonja (ESR7), Charlotte (ESR8), and (fellow Hereon colleague) David (ESR13) attended the event as well.
Koketso got to meet some of her fellow ESRs again in September at the GMOS-Train meeting in Nantes, France, hosted by IFREMER.
In November, Koketso was back in France, this time in Grenoble, for her second secondment at L'Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (IGE), Université Grenoble Alpes. At the secondment, in addition to her co-supervisor Prof. Aurélien Dommergue, Koketso had the opportunity to engage with mercury researchers Dr. Hélène Angot from IGE as well as Prof. Jenny Fisher who was visiting IGE from the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Australia.
Conveniently, the secondment took place just before the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-5) in Geneva, Switzerland (only a 2-hour bus ride to Grenoble!). Koketso was part of the GMOS-Train team, together with Prof. Milena Horvat, Dr. Oleg Travnikov, and Dr. Johannes Bieser, and fellow ESRs Sreekanth (ESR2), Isabel (ESR6) and Sonja (ESR7), that presented the GMOS-Train project at the COP5. At the meeting, Koketso also got to once again meet fellow South African mercury researcher, Dr. Lynwill Martin, who is organising the 16th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP). The ICMGP will be hosted in Cape Town (for the first time in Africa!) in July later this year, and Koketso’s abstract was recently accepted. Not only will this be a great opportunity to interact with fellow mercury researchers from across the globe, but she will also get to visit her home country after nearly two years away!
ESR13 David Amptmeijer: Summer Secondments, Scientific Collaboration, and Parental Leave Journey
David Amptmeijer (ESR 13) spent this summer on secondments. Initially, he collaborated with Sonja Gindorf (ESR 7) in Stockholm, working on the data they had collected jointly last year in the Southern Ocean aboard the S.A. Alghullas II. Following this, he traveled to CNR in Rende, Italy, where he engaged with Charikleia Gournia (ESR 15), focusing on optimizing models for their applicability in policymaking. In addition to this David spent time last year training the next generation of potential Hg scientists by supervising two master students from the University of Hamburg for a project where they worked on modelling uptake of Hg in macrobenthos. Upon the conclusion of summer, he embarked on his parental leave, which he continues to relish, devoting time to care for one of the GMOS train deliveries named Bo. David intends to remain on parental leave until Bo reaches one year of age and is ready for childcare, allowing David to concentrate on completing and submitting his thesis by October 2024.
ESR12 Jared Walsh: Shaping Research Goals After ERCA 2024 Winter School Training
Jared is in the very early stages of his PhD as ESR12 in GMOS-Train. This year, he felt fortunate to attend the ERCA 2024 Winter School in Grenoble, France in January 2024, where he received crucial Atmospheric Chemistry training for his PhD. With this refined knowledge, he is now further developing his research questions and objectives for his thesis, after which he will begin investigating the production of DGM in the context of DIC remineralization in the South Atlantic Ocean, and will model the release of Hg into the atmosphere within this context.
ESR11 Allwin Mabes Raj Presents his Research in Poreč, Croatia
Allwin Mabes Raj (ESR 11) presented a poster titled- Mer B (Organomercurial-lyase) mediated mercury detection in Poreč, Croatia in the Conference themed: Power of Microbes with his supervisor Dr Aleš Lapanje and working supervisor Dr Tomaz Rijavec and his colleagues from the Biocolliod group.
Allwin has prepared gold electrodes in which he has optimized a protocol for the successful functionalization of Histag proteins.
Advancements in Atmospheric Pollutant Analysis: Theodor-Daniel Andron's Contributions to Metrology and Education
Along with Dr. Igor Živković Teodor-Daniel Andron took part in an inter-calibration campaign organized by CNR Italy, which took part in the Cosenza region. For one month they have compared many calibration and detection devices by different private partners. The work is of course going to be published.
Optimizing Mercury Isotope Analysis: Saeed Waqar Ali's Journey of Methodological Advancement and Scientific Collaboration
The second half of 2022 began with Ali’s virtual participation in the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP) 2022. There, he presented his work on the methodological assessment of mercury (Hg) determination in foliage samples and the associated seasonal Hg isotope signatures in different forest settings in Slovenia. It was during this time that the need to improve the efficiency of the current Hg pre-concentration method was recognized. Consequently, he successfully optimized an existing pre-concentration method for analyzing Hg isotopes in foliage samples with low Hg concentrations. The implementation of the proposed Hg pre-concentration method not only allowed him to prepare and analyze additional samples for Hg isotopic signatures but will also be beneficial to the wider scientific community adopting this method. This also expanded his dataset and provided a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. Other important events in 2022 included a training course on the metrology of uncertainty associated with Hg measurements, as well as a field trip to the Gulf of Trieste for the measurement of Dissolved Gaseous Mercury (DGM) and Reactive Mercury (RM) in seawater samples.
The year 2023 started with his participation in the annual GMOS-Train meeting in Hamburg, Germany where he presented his work on the optimized Hg pre-concentration method. Although a significant portion of 2023 was dedicated to parental responsibilities, he was able to publish his work on Hg pre-concentration method optimization in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (ABC). We congratulate him on this achievement. In addition, his collaborations with other Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) 2 and 10 in their respective projects resulted in co-authored publications in peer-reviewed journals. He virtually presented his work progress in the GMOS-Train mid-term meeting held in Nantes, France later that year.
Looking forward to the following year, Ali has an exciting list of tasks planned. His primary focus will be on finalizing his publications and preparing the thesis for submission, in addition to spending time in the laboratory. He is eagerly anticipating the opportunity to share his work and interact with people at the ICMGP 2024. He believes it will be a great platform to exchange ideas, learn from others, and make new connections. He is very excited to attend this event.
Charlotte Haugk Presents Research at ACES Day Amid Maternity Leave
Since I was (and still partly am) on maternity leave, nothing much happened for me.
I attended ACES Day (our department science day) and presented a poster of one of my manuscripts in preparation and got very nice feedback and discussions.
ESR7 Sonja Explores Polar Mercury Dynamics: From Southern Ocean Analysis to Arctic Ocean II Expedition
From March to May 2023, ESR Sonja visited Natalia and Lars-Eric at the MIO in Marseille for the analysis of the Southern Ocean mercury samples that she collected together with ESRs David and Jared during the SCALE winter cruise in July 2022. The data analysis is still ongoing.
Fieldwork: Arctic Ocean II cruise
In August 2024, ESR Sonja participated in the Arctic Ocean II cruise with the Norwegian Polar Institute onboard the research vessel Kronprins Haakon. The cruise track consisted of two transects across the slope from the shelf into the deep Nansen basin North of Svalbard. During the three weeks on board, Sonja collected a variety of samples for mercury speciation and distribution. The samples collected include CTD samples from the water column (picture 2) for total mercury, methylmercury and monomethylmercury analysis. Moreover, zooplankton samples were collected using an MIK-net and sorted by species at each of the stations (picture 3). Close to the stations, fish muscle tissue samples were collected from pelagic trawling and at one station benthic biota samples were collected. At four stations, surface sediment samples were collected from a box corer (picture 4). At the Northernmost station (84N), Sonja collected sea ice samples from three 140 cm long ice cores that were sectioned into 20 cm sections (Pictures 5-7). Currently, these samples are analyzed at Stockholm University.
ESR6 Isabel García Arévalo's Dynamic Engagement: From Field Campaigns to International Collaborations in Mercury Research
Since the last newsletter ESR6, Isabel García Arévalo, participated in various data acquisition and career development activities.
She joined the CAMELIA-5 campaign following a transect downstream of the Loire River to the Loire estuary to investigate trace metal and nutrient dynamics during the low-flow period. The 5 CAMELIA campaigns have been taking place since 2012 during different seasons and flow regimes.
As part of the secondment plan and international collaboration, she continued the analysis of the samples from the phytoplankton mercury uptake experiments for two months at Stockholm University. Additionally, alongside Sonja Gindorf (ESR7), they developed an experiment to follow up the sorption and desorption of mercury from organic-rich non-living particles.
Her next secondment included modelling training at Hamburg for 1 month during Hereon's Winter School on modelling & Hackathon.
As part of dissemination and networking activities, she participated in the mercury special session during Goldschmidt 2023 with a poster and an online oral presentation for the ICMGP 2022. Moreover, following the overarching goal of the GMOS-train project, she joined the GMOS crew at the Minamata Convention COP-5 presenting the advances of the Marine mercury dynamics work package during the GMOS-train Knowledge Lab.
Lastly, she was able to establish a collaboration network with research institutes and universities from Ecuador to reinforce mercury monitoring along the coast with possibilities to expand to other regions of Ecuador.
Finally, all these activities were mixed with work at the desk, lots of writing, getting her first paper accepted, and finishing her dissertation in the next months.
