Department of Bioscience

Key qualifications

I study the cycling of trace metals in the Arctic, especially mining pollutants and long-transported pollutants such as mercury. My research area lies in the interface between environmental chemistry, geochemistry, analytical chemistry and biology.

I have a background in Geography/Geology (M.Sc) and Chemistry (B.Sc) from University of Copenhagen and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Copenhagen/University of Svalbard in 2009.

Since 2009, I have worked as a Research Scientist and later Senior Advisor for Aarhus University (AU), Department of Bioscience and Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE).

My main job tasks at AU/DCE are environmental research and monitoring in relation to mining activities in Greenland and advisory of the Greenland authorities on environmental issues related to mining.

I am also partly responsible for running the department’s accredited environmental trace metal laboratory with special expertise in ICP-MS analyses of biota, sediment, fresh- and seawater. Head of the Trace Metal Laboratory, Arctic Section, since 2017.

The main research topics I have been involved with are:

• Cycling of metal pollutants in the arctic, including mobilization, dispersion and bioaccumulation
• Processes and controls for release of metal pollutants from mine waste
• Methods to trace mobility and fate of mining-related pollutants in the environment
• Speciation of mining-related metals and new analytical techniques to measure it

I have many years of experience with fieldwork in rough conditions and have conducted fieldwork in the Arctic since 2001.