I was trained in analytical and environmental chemistry at the University of Jena, the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Research Warnemünde and the University of Texas at Austin. After a PhD in Chemical Oceanography at the Oceanographic Laboratory at Villefranche sur Mer, i was postdoc/contact researcher at Geosciences Environment Toulouse and Junior Professor the University of Bremen. Since 2015, i am CNRS research scientist at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography at the Aix-Marseille-University in France. I am interested in the application of novel techniques to outstanding questions on trace metal cycling in the ocean, with an emphasis on low-level speciation, stable isotopes and sensor approaches. I organized several intercomparison exercises to improve mercury species measurements in sea water. Much of my research addresses the fundamental questions of how much mercury resides in the oceans, how much we have have added and which portion of it makes its way up the marine food chain. Trying to find answers, i participated in over 30 oceanographic cruises to the Mediterranean, Black and Baltic Seas, the Atlantic, Pacific, Southern and Arctic Oceans. I co-authored the 2018 United Nations Environmental Programme Global Mercury Assessment & the 2021 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme for Mercury. I am member of the GEOTRACES Standards & Intercalibration committee and co-organized the 12th,13th, 14th & 15th International Conference of Mercury as a Global Pollutant.