Montanuniversität Leoben
Team
Dr. Johanna Irrgeher (MUL)
is the PI of TecEUS with a >10-year record in environmental analytical chemistry and also leading the project activities related to analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry (senior scientist at MUL since 2019/01). She is experienced in terrestrial sampling and has been involved in large cruise sampling campaigns.
Her expertise covers sampling, sample preparation, method development for trace element and isotopic analysis, measurements, data reduction, statistical data analysis and uncertainty propagation. JI is experienced with the handling of large data sets, elemental analysis (ICP-QMS, ICP-SFMS, ICP-MS/MS) and isotopic analysis methods (e.g. B, S, Sr, Mo, Zn, Ti, Mo, Gd, Pb, Nd and U isotopes based on MC ICP-MS) and chemical imaging involving (LA)-ICP-MS as well as hyphenated techniques (prepFAST-MC, seaFAST) for low-level analysis of metals and rare earth metals. JI has been involved into various transdisciplinary research projects and supervised more than 30 students from all levels.
JI will be key responsible for sampling, the development of the analytical techniques and LA-ICP-MS /LIBS, ICP-MS/MS and MC ICP-MS for elemental and isotopic analysis.
Dr. Donata Bandoniene
holds a permanent position as senior scientist at the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry (MUL). Her expertise lies in developing and applying analytical methods based on elemental mass spectrometric techniques as well as x-ray fluorescence-based techniques.
Univ. Prof Dr. Thomas Prohaska
is Full Professor and Head of the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry at MUL since October 2018. With 120+ relevant publications he is a leading researcher in the field of elemental and isotopic analysis.
He will contribute to TecEUS with his expertise in analytical chemistry, citizen science-based approaches (Sparkling Science projects) and recent developments in passive sampling (FWF-project P30085).
Tine Opper
holds a position as chemical laboratory technician at MUL. In her area of responsibility she is involved in project management, sampling, sample preparation, measurement of trace elements and isotope ratios by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers, as well as the evaluation and presentation of research results. Tine is part of the technical team, managing the labs in Leoben. She will support the TecEUS team in tasks related to her field of expertise.
Mohammad Zendehbad, M.Sc.
obtained a master's degree in environmental sciences in Iran and was a research assistant at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), from 2015-2020. He had been involved in different multidisciplinary projects, mainly with a focus on pollution source identification within the urban settings. In the TecEUS project, Mohammad will develop analytical methods to quantify TCEs in environmental sample matrices centered on ICP-MS techniques, both based on solution analysis as well as imaging methods by laser-based techniques. He will be in charge of sample preparation, method development and analysis. Mohammad will be involved in project coordination, field and laboratory experiments related to urban greening and data processing, as well.
Martina Maurer
has been an apprentice at MUL since September 2019 and is looking forward to learning more about being a chemist as part of this project. This includes the general handling of a project from the preliminary meetings to the laboratory work such as sampling, preparation and measurement of trace elements and isotope ratios by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers. Martina is part of the technical team in Leoben and will complete her apprenticeship in early 2023.
BOKU
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU)
Institute of Soil Bioengineering and Landscape Construction (IBLB)
Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
Team
Priv.Doz. Dr. Ulrike Pitha
has high expertise in vegetation technology, the setup and evaluation of vertical greening for improvement of city life, monitoring plants and their effects. Uli combines profound know-how in measurement, monitoring and experimental set-up of binding fine particulate with plants and long-time experience in participating and leading transdisciplinary in (inter)national research projects about measurements; simulation, assessment of effects of green façades; expertise and involvement in several Vienna-based topic-related projects. Her investigations encompass basic research, examinations of new methods and their applicability in practice. She is leader of the research group ‘vegetation technology’ with the research focus on green infrastructure, plant use in urban areas, plant monitoring, quantification of ecosystem services, urban rainwater management with plants, development of living walls, green roofs and substrates. UP will be responsible for sampling of study sites for green façades and the setup of wind channel box experiments.
Dipl.-Ing.Bernhard Scharf
studied Landscape planning and design and graduated with excellence in 2001. Since 2006 he is member of the research group of Priv. Doz. Dr. Ulrike Pitha. His research emphases on the investigation of ecosystem services as well as the development of innovative services and technological solution in the realm of green infrastructure in the urban context. As senior scientist, he has vast experience in development of research designs, measurement methods and monitoring of effects, derived by plants. Currently, he is finalizing his PhD thesis titled Plants in Cities – Effects of Green Infrastructures on Urban Energy and Water Balance.
Dipl.-Ing. Philipp Spörl
joined the master’s degree program in Landscape Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Science in 2016 and finished his master thesis with the title “Facade greening in a modular, living wall system” in October 2019.
Since 2018 he is a member of the research group “vegetation technology” at the Institute of Soil Bioengineering and Landscape Construction. His research focus is on plant monitoring, living walls and substrates. He will be involved in the sampling of study sites for green façades (WP 3.2) and the setup of wind channel box experiments (WP 4).
Dr. Dominik Wiedenhofer Institute of Social Ecology (SEC)
has considerable experience in developing novel bottom-up and top-down dynamic MFA modelling applications. Within the project, he will expand his modelling expertise into technology-specific applications required to investigate TCEs from a systems perspective on sustainability. DW utilizes approaches of Industrial Ecology to investigate the dynamics of socioeconomic material and energy flows in relation to societal stocks of technologies, buildings and infrastructure. He investigates potentials of a circular economy in the context of long-term trajectories of resource use and accumulation of materials in products, infrastructure and buildings. He has been involved in a number of large interdisciplinary projects and currently works as Post-Doc and project manager for an ERC-Advanced Grant. This positions him perfectly to contribute to TecEUS and its large conceptual and empirical communication requirements between the different sub-teams. DW will be responsible for developing the socio-ecological MFA in close interaction between the core teams to ensure compatibility of generated data and insights.
Doris Virag, M.A. MSc.
is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Social Ecology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna. Her research focuses on society-nature interactions and their interdependences. She works on understanding societal metabolism and its environmental implications and potentials of circular economy strategies for achieving a future with more sustainable resource use patterns. In this project, she will contribute to conducting a system-wide material flow analysis (MFA) of technology critical elements in Vienna. The goal is to establish a technology-specific dynamic MFA model to process data generated by the other project modules.
Medical University Vienna
Team
Dr. Daniela Haluza
holds a PhD in Public Health and is a medical specialist in microbiology and hygiene and assistant professor at the Center for Public Health. Her research focuses on environmental hygiene and Public Health aspects of ambient air pollution in Europe and skin health promotion in Austria. She coined the term Green Public Health for research investigating how natural environments contribute to human health and wellbeing. Environmental health research supports the development of individual and collective measures to protect against harmful effects, to promote health and sustainable development, and to evaluate these measures in terms of their efficiency, effectiveness and acceptance. DH is trained in Open Innovation in Science and will act as consultant in aspects related to citizen science sampling, data interpretation and in charge of work packages related to Green Public Health.
is a PhD candidate at the Center of Public Health at the Medical University of Vienna. His research focuses on psychosocial aspects of people-environment-interaction. As environmental psychologist he investigates salutogenetic effects of environments and the role emotional attachment to places and nature as such plays in generating positive effects on human health and well-being. In this project, he works on the effects of green façades as a measure to improve human health and other topics related to Green Public Health.
