Science Sub-Committee
Lennart Bach
Dr. Bach is an experimental marine biogeochemist, discovering environmental impacts on marine pelagic ecosystems at global scales. From 2012-2019, he was a postdoctoral researcher at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel where he studied the effects of ocean acidification and other environmental drivers on plankton communities and the biogeochemical fluxes plankton controls. In 2020 he became appointed with an ongoing research position for phytoplankton physiology and ecology at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania and received a Future Fellowship Award by the Australian Research Council to study the efficacy and environmental side-effects of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement.
Jasper Griffioen
Prof. Dr. Jasper Griffioen is specialised in environmental geochemistry and hydrogeology within the framework of sustainable management of soil and water resources. He has been studying the potential of nature-based techniques for environmental management of water and land: 1. environmental geochemical risks at the Sand Motor, a nature-driven nourishment technique of coastal systems, 2. biogeochemical processes when building islands with soft mud sediments and their implication for strength development and ecological evolution, 3. physical boundary conditions for dynamic polder management to reach sustainable livelihoods, applied to southwestern Bangladesh, and 4. transforming harbour sediments from waste product into resource by adding olivine. His expertise is frequently used for initial evaluations and second-opinions for critical conditions as well as policy support. He applied his expertise internationally in Kenya, Tanzania, Slovakia, Indonesia, China, Lebanon, Nepal and Uganda, and has been involved in PhD studies in Bangladesh, Italy, Iran, Brazil and Nepal.
Mathilde Hagens
Mathilde Hagens is a biogeochemist focusing on carbon and nutrient cycling in natural environments. She is interested in the functioning of both the terrestrial and oceanic carbon sinks in relation to climate change mitigation, with a particular interest in enhanced silicate weathering. She currently investigates this topic at the Soil Chemistry and Chemical Soil Quality chair group at Wageningen University & Research, where she also teaches in the Master Climate Studies. In her Ph.D. and postdoc projects Mathilde worked on the impact of biogeochemical processes on the carbonate system in the marine realm, for which she combined field data with numerical modelling.