Educational background

Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. rer. nat.)
Earth Sciences (Geochemistry)
Marie Skłodowska–Curie PhD Fellow
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Germany
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
October 2016 – January 2020
Summa cum laude

Master of Science in Environmental Sanitation
(now Environmental Science & Technology)
Ghent University, Belgium
September 2014 – September 2016
Summa cum laude (1st in class, top 5%)

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering
University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
June 2007 – April 2012
Cum laude (5th in class, top 10%)

Biography

I was born in Makati City, Philippines, but grew up in San Pedro City in the southern part of Luzon island. My family moved back to my parents’ hometown in the province of Quezon (also in southern Luzon) in 2003. From there, I attended Lipa City Science High School, which has a specialized science and math curriculum, from 12 to 16, and finished in 2007.

From 2007, I studied BSc in Chemical Engineering at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. After finishing my BSc in 2012, I worked as an instructor in the same university for 2 years, teaching undergraduate engineering science courses. I was awarded with a VLIR-UOS MSc scholarship in 2014 and studied MSc Environmental Sanitation at Ghent University in Belgium. It was there that I discovered my love for iron oxide chemistry, having done my MSc thesis on iron oxide nanoparticles supported on nanoporous materials for water treatment. I finished my MSc degree in September 2016, graduating summa cum laude and received 2 thesis prizes for my MSc research work (ArcelorMittal Indaver Thesis Award, Water Technology Award).

In October 2016, I received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD fellowship to work on redox-sensitive iron minerals with Prof. Dr. Liane G. Benning at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany. I submitted my doctoral dissertation (Green rust formation and reactivity with arsenic species) in October 2019, and defended in January 2020 with an overall grade of summa cum laude. I was awarded with the 2020 Friedrich-Robert-Helmert Award for the best doctoral dissertation at GFZ Potsdam.

I continued as a postdoctoral scientist at GFZ Potsdam, shifting my research focus to iron and carbon (bio)geochemistry in Arctic wetlands. Starting November 2022, I am a GFZ Discovery Research Fellow (Eigene Stelle), working on carbon dynamics in redox-impacted Arctic soils.

You can download my full CV here.