Silke Merchel
EAG Councillor
Silke is addicted to “big machines” like particle accelerators, neutron sources and synchrotron facilities for analytical purposes. She has always been a research nomad – finding herself the most interesting research topics, excellent laboratory working opportunities and nicest colleagues. She worked, e.g., at Forschungszentrum Jülich, University of Cologne, Purdue University, Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry Mainz, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing Berlin, CEREGE Aix-en-Provence, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Australian National University and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf.
Silke is currently working at the VERA (Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator) facility of the University of Vienna to improve and facilitate the chemical separation of long-lived radionuclides. The resulting data, measured by accelerator mass spectrometry, gives quantitative insights into Earth and Planetary Research topics like astrophysics, climate and ocean sciences, cosmochemistry and geomorphology.