IMPACTANT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Prehistory Dept
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Prehistory and I hold a PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology (UAB, 2019) and an MSc in Archaeological Sciences (University of Bradford, 2015). My ...
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Barcelona. I hold a PhD in Environmental Science and Technology (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology - Autonomous University of Barcelona, ICTA-UAB), an MSc in Sustainable Development (Uppsala University, UU, and the Swedish University of Agriculture, SLU), and two bachelor's degrees, one in Environmental Sciences (University of Barcelona, UB) and another in Media and Communication (UB).
The main focus of my work is the study of the natural variability of the Earth\'s climate. My research tools are organic geochemical techniques, which allow the quantitative reconstruction of past climates. My work develops in three main areas i) the development of novel biomarker methods of climate reconstruction; ii) their application to reconstruct the dynamics and role of the ocean on climate over the last 5 million years; and iii) the use of such information to validate and constrain the sensitivity of climate models. I am also involved in the study of the impacts of anthropogenic activities in natural environments. I apply an environmental forensics approach to study the origin and fate of organic pollutants in remote environments, like the deep sea or the Amazonian rainforests. A third area of research is the study of organic matter in an archaeological context, mainly to reconstruct palaeodiets of ancient cultures and the use or function of archaeological artifacts
I trained as an analytical chemist at the Chemical Institute of Sarrià (IQS), in Barcelona, and subsequently as an environmental chemist at CSIC under the supervision of J. Grimalt and J. Albaigés. I moved to England in 1990 to earn a PhD in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol (completed in 1994), in the group of G. Eglinton, on the application of biomarkers to decipher natural causes of climate change. This has become the central topic of my research career. In 1994 I joined the group of J. Maxwell as a post-doctoral researcher also in the School of Chemistry of Bristol to develop the use of fossil chlorophylls as climatic proxies. In 1996 I was awarded a NERC fellowship at the Department of Fossil Fuels and Environmental Geochemistry at the University of Newcastle, England. In 1999 I became a lecturer in the department of Geography at Durham University, England. In 2001, I joined the UAB and ICTA as an ICREA Research Professor.
Ashley Braunthal is a native of Connecticut (USA). She holds BA degrees (2014) in Geology and German from Bates College, Maine (USA) and a MSc (2020) in Marine and Atmospheric Science from Stony Brook University, New York (USA). She completed her master's thesis on paleo-redox conditions recorded in laminated sediments of Bowers Ridge, Bering Sea (IODP Expedition 323, Site U1342) in the Wehrmann Biogeochemistry group. Braunthal was a NSF-REU Biogeochemistry Fellow (2013) at UC Irvine in the Czimczik and Randerson groups, as part of the Biosphere-atmosphere trace gas exchange and aerosol emissions from Alaska project, and NASA's Carbon Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment campaign. In 2015-16, Braunthal was a U.S. - Norway Fulbright Student Scholar as part of the ERC-Synergy granted Ice2Ice project with the Jansen group at the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research. Braunthal worked as a research staff assistant at Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (2016-18) in the Raymo and Hemming groups, and the Core Repository.
As a PhD student in the Rosell-Melé Group at the ICTA-UAB, Braunthal will contribute to the 2018 ERC Advanced Grant PALADYN project (New geochemical approach to reconstruct tropical palaeo-atmospheric dynamics). Her research will focus on tracking spatial shifts in the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone over the last 22 kya (last glacial maximum). For this, she will analyze marine sedimentary archives with geochemical proxies.
Job Titles:
- Junior Researcher, Undergraduate Chemistry
Job Titles:
- Internship, Environmental Biology / 2020
Job Titles:
- Internship, Environmental Biology / 2020
I hold my PhD at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) in February 2021. Previously, I hold a BSc in Environmental Science (University of Granada), a MSc in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing (Institute of Space Sciences of Catalonia - IEEC) and a MSc in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability (ICTA-UAB).
My research mainly focuses on two thematic areas:
Survey by remote sensing of anthropic impacts on the tropical rainforest. I have analyzed deforestation, forest disturbance, illegal logging, fragmentation, and pollution in the oil extraction areas of northern Peruvian Amazon through multispectral Sentinel 2 and Landsat imagery. I have also employed Sentinel 1 SAR images for detecting oil spills in areas with high vegetation density and frequent cloud cover in tropical rainforests. My goal is to develop a near real-time monitoring system to detect oil spills in tropical rainforests to improve the control in countries with weak governance.
Unburnable fossil fuels and climate mitigation policies to limit the increase in global mean temperature to 1.5°C. I am currently contributing to the creation of the first geospatial digital interactive platform to identify and rank unburnable fuels, accouting for social-evironmental and economic impacts, and allowing the informed design of optimal divestment strategies and policies.
I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Biology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), which included an exchange program during the last year at the San Francisco de Quito University (USFQ) (Ecuador), and a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Development from the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands).
For the last four years I have been involved in assessing the accountability of petroleum corporations regarding environmental liabilities and their effect on the environment in the Peruvian context. Along this journey, I have professionally been engaged with different national (ICTA-UAB, UVic-Universitat Central de Catalunya) and international (ISS-Erasmus University Rotterdam) research institutions to which I have given technical assistance to provide evidence on the impact of oil companies' practices and their strategies to escape legal responsibility, including the dumping produced water into the environment. Recently, and resulting from this work, I have submitted my master's thesis about the level of accountability achieved by the Peruvian fiscalisation system based on data issued by the State´s Environmental Agency and indigenous federations living close to areas of oil extraction through a participatory monitoring system. Results of the thesis are currently being adapted for scientific publication. In addition to being involved in oil extraction-related issues, I have given technical support to projects related to lead and mercury pollution in tropical countries (Perú and Cameroon). Moreover, I have recently helped update an integrated spatial assessment model that constructs the first global atlas of unburnable oil resources (upcoming publication). My various contributions have been approached from interdisciplinary methodologies, including geographical information systems, literature reviews, environmental forensics, and community-based monitoring systems.
I am an analytical chemist specialized in, and fascinated by, the use of chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques to undertake different scientific questions.
During my early professional period my research interests were related to the development and use of organic biomarkers to reconstruct past oceanic environments. I earned a PhD degree in 1996 with a study of the North Atlantic temperature and productivity evolution during glacial-interglacial periods. During 1996-1999 I expanded my expertise in past climates in different research units (University of Bristish Columbia and University of Bordeaux) were I had the opportunity to study geochemistry and past climate evolution in other oceanic areas (Canadian Inlets, Sea of Arabia and upwelling off Namibia). In 1999, back to Barcelona, I worked as a contracted researcher in the IIQAB-CSIC, coordinating research activities of the research group.
During a second professional period (2002-2009) I worked for a pharmaceutical company (Sanofi) as analytical chemist responsible of method development for bioanalysis.
During a third professional period (2009-2014) period I had the opportunity to learn about the specific (and unique) analytical aspects related to Proteomics in the Laboratory of Proteomics (CSIC_UAB).
I am presently a contracted researcher at ICTA-UAB, where I contribute with my expertise to develop and establish new tools to reconstruct the natural dynamics of atmosphere and oceans in the past.
I hold a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (Mexico) and a Postgraduate certificate in Zoning, Environmental Impact and Ecological Restoration from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. I am currently working on my dissertation for the Master's degree in Ecology, Management and Environmental Restoration at the University of Barcelona (Spain), where my contribution to the Unburned Project would be through a teamwork to define a criteria based on environmental injustices that allows identifying the reserves of unburned fossil fuels that must remain underground to not exceed the 1.5°C threshold. In order to achieve this objective I have extracted from the EJAtlas database the conflicts related to the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels. I have then been grouping the cases by main local concerns and highlighting them if there are also vulnerable minorities involved. By collecting and subsequently working on this data, we hope to have the necessary tools for the authorities to proceed to end the fossil fuel era.
I am a postdoctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB. I hold a PhD in Environmental Science and Technology (UAB, 2019), an MSc in Analytical Chemistry (UB, 2014) and a BSc in Chemistry (UB, 2013). My ...
Job Titles:
- Marie Curie Research Fellow
- Research Fellow
Matthieu is a geographer/geoarchaeologist by training and hold a BA, MSc and PhD from Aix-Marseille University (France). Following his PhD, he joined the Department of Geography at Durham University (UK) as a MSCA-Cofund Junior Research Fellow (2018-2019) and then the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa (Israel). He is a Research Fellow of the Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa (Israel). Matthieu joined the ImpacTANT research group at ICTA-UAB, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow on the GEOLAKE project. His research aims to disentangle the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities on the environment and to highlight the long-term adaptation of populations in the Upper Jordan Valley during the Holocene.
Since the last years, his research has evolved and matured in a number of directions structured around the evolution of coastlines (Mediterranean, Black and Red Seas) during the past 8000 years. His work can be subdivided into three interrelated themes: (1) the geomorphology and chronostratigraphy of ancient harbours in deltaic environments; (2) the morphosedimentary response of coastal areas and deltas to climate forcings, human impacts and relative sea-level changes; (3) the chronostratigraphic signature of Holocene risks and hazards. He is also interested in Holocene human-environment interactions through the lens of continental/lacustrine archives in proximity to archaeological sites.
If you are interested in doing research on any of these topics, for your Postdoc, PhD, Msc or intership, you are welcome to contact me anytime at marti.orta@ub.edu I would be happy to support you to apply to:
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona. I hold a PhD in Environmental Sciences (Institute of Environmental Science and Technology - Autonomous University of Barcelona), a postgraduate degree in Ecological Economics and Environmental Management (UAB), a postgraduate degree in Ecology (UAB), and a BSc in Biology (University of Barcelona).
I have developed a research career on political ecology of extractive industries in tropical rainforests and indigenous territories of remote areas of the world. My research has focused, in a broad sense, on the study of environmental pollution from upstream oil industry, tropical rainforests conservation, socio-environmental conflicts and corporate accountability. I have approached these topics from a set of interdisciplinary methodologies, such as community-based monitoring, citizen science, remote sensing, GIS and environmental forensics. I have almost 20 years of experience working on environmental outcomes of petroleum-related activities in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon. I have also conducted pantropical studies on the expansion of the oil frontier in the tropical rainforests and on the governance and management of environmental resources and services involving indigenous people in the Amazon lowland rainforests of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and in Cameroon, Southeast Asia (Indonesia) and Siberia.
Born near Paris, France, Nina started her education as an undergraduate at the prestigious ENS de Lyon, France, and completed several research internships, including one at CEREGE, France (cosmogenic isotopes) and another at MARUM, Germany (organic geochemistry). After her PhD in environmental geosciences at CEREGE/Aix-Marseille University, France (supervised by Edouard Bard and Guillemette Ménot), she worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the Collège de France, Climate and Ocean Evolution, CEREGE, France, under the supervision of Edouard Bard. More specifically, Nina further validated novel organic paleothermometers, which she first tested with the analytical method that she developed during her PhD. She is now working at ICTA-UAB as a postdoctoral researcher in the framework of the European Research Council project PALADYN led by Antoni Rosell-Melé.
The development and validation of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental proxies is useful not only to better understand the climate system but also to put the current global warming into a broader perspective. Nina is interested on organic proxies as well as paleoclimatology, paleoenvironments and paleoceanography. She is also motivated to conduct analytical developments, compound specific isotope analyses, including radiocarbon, and to study modern samples as complements to climatic archives.
Job Titles:
- General Lab Manager and Research Technician
I am an environmental lab technician at ICTA-UAB. I hold an MSc in Environmental Studies (UAB, 2012) and a BSc in Environmental Science (UAB, 2004). My work focuses on environmental chemistry, basically using analytical techniques of gas chromatography, analysing natural samples in order to develop 1) environmental forensics studies to identify the origin and fate of organic pollutants in remote environments and 2) organic biomarker methods for climate change reconstructions.
Currently, I am also a PhD student at ICTA-UAB investigating the impacts of organic pollutants on the Mediterranean Sea fish, a case of chronic contamination, and on Peruvian Amazon soils, a case of diffuse pollution due to oil extraction.
Oriol Teruel Cabello hold a BSc in Geological Engineer by the Universitat Politècnia de Catalunya and the Universitat de Barcelona (2017) and received his MSc in Pollution, Toxicology and Environmental Health from Universitat de València (2019). Currently he is a PhD student at the Institute of Environmental Science at Technology (ICTA-UAB) in the PALADYN-ERC project coordinated by Antoni Rosell-Melé.
The current climate change induced by human activity is changing our Planet. I am interested in the study of the Earth as a whole system and the investigation of the interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. Knowing how these components of the Earth system have interacted during past climate changes helps us to understand the new dynamics of this system in the context of this Anthropocene epoch.
Nowadays, I am focused in the study of the atmospheric circulation and changes in the Intercontinental Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the Hadley Circulation around the globe using dust and soot ocean depositions.
Job Titles:
- Manager of the IRMS Facility
I hold a PhD in Chemistry (University R. Llull, Barcelona, Catalonia) and an MSc in Environmental Management of the Entreprise (University P. Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia). Under the scientific direction of dr. A. Rosell, I manage the Stable Isotopes Analysis Lab (LAIE) at ICTA -UAB, which includes analysing samples and developing methods as well as providing scientific and technical support to users. I also have professional experience in industry and public research centres in Catalonia and abroad.
My doctoral research at ICTA-UAB explores the soil carbon sequestration potential of abandoned agricultural lands at various geographic scales. Abandoned farmlands gradually transition towards grasslands, shrublands and forests, usually resulting in significant increases in above- and belowground carbon stocks. I am interested in how soil organic carbon stocks change over time following the cessation of agricultural practices to better understand what role abandoned lands can play for climate change mitigation when they are left to spontaneously "rewild".