Silke Merchel, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Austria
Biography
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.
Motivation for serving the EAG council
From the scientific perspective, I like to promote the excellent analytical infrastructures in Europe and abroad. Although, large-scale facilities have a great potential for solving problems at the research frontiers of modern geochemistry, their use is often hampered by a reputation of being complicated, expensive and not-easily accessible. My ambition is to empower the EAG community with improved access to these sophisticated facilities and analytical methods to better address societally highly relevant challenges on Earth and in the environment. Educating the public on the value of these projects is a parallel goal. As a trained chemist, I have worked my whole scientific life in a true interdisciplinary environment, very often embodying the “missing link” between researchers from geoscience and physics, hence, I hope I am well-prepared to serve the EAG.