Research Interests & Current Project

Low-temperature geochemical processes, specifically those that focus at the mineral-water interface, have always been of great interest to me from the very beginning. Through my years of study I have focused on topics related to sorption processes on mineral surfaces, geochemical cycling of elements and especially the fate of pollutants in both freshwater and marine environments, biomineralization and geochemical processes during early stages of diagenesis.

Here, at Utrecht University I am studying iron mineral transformations as a function of redox and their influence on radionuclide mobility, specifically uranium. Uptake of radionuclides by iron oxyhydroxides is significant; changes in iron mineralogy, occurring under varying redox conditions (e.g. subsurface environments), are likely to influence radionuclide transport in natural environments. Results from experiments performed in abiotic conditions will be compared to those done in the presence of bacteria that will play the role of inducing iron mineral transformation. Goal of this project is to get a better insight on the sorption behavior of radionuclides, their complexation with the iron mineral substrate and their reduction and oxidation rates under changes of the redox scale (anoxic - suboxic - oxic).