Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. Sonja Oberbeckmann, Habil., worked at the IOW for many years as a postdoctoral researcher and project leader for the BONUS MICROPOLL project.

Dr. Juliana Ivar do Sul remains at the IOW, now in the chemistry department. While part of WG Environmental Microbiology, she worked within the project PLASTRAT, to process microplastics for identification in sewage sludge. She also researched a number of microplastic-related topics during her time in the group, including the evaluation of glitter as a notable microplastic, and scientrometric links between microplastics and microbiology. She continues her work into the evaluation on whether microplastics can act as an indicator in sediment for the Anthropocene.

Dr. Brittan Star-Scales worked at the IOW as a postdoctoral researcher on the BONUS MICROPOLL project until 2022.

Dr. Sophie Charvet worked at the IOW from 2014-2017. She worked within the EU funded project AFISmon. Her research was focussed, in the main, with the testing of the AFISsys, a device for the autonomous sampling and fixation of microbial mRNA.

Dr. Janine Wäge-Recchioni remains at the IOW, she is working in the WG Microbial Ecology since 2019. Janine did her PhD at the University of Hull (U.K.) in 2015. She worked within the WG Environmental Microbiology from 2016 - 2018 especially on zooplankton-mediated methane production, notably how microcapillary sampling of copepod gut microbiomes can be used to study this dynamic.

 

PhD Graduates

Dr. Mariano Santoro worked as a doctoral candidate at the IOW from 2017 to 2021 as part of the P-Campus project. In 2025, he successfully defended his dissertation titled “Ecological Context of Cyanobacterial Blooms in the Baltic Sea Under the Influence of Nutrient Depletion and Climate Factors.”

Dr. Robin Lenz worked as a doctoral student at the IOW from 2017 to 2021 as part of the MicroCatch_Balt project. In 2025, he successfully defended his dissertation titled “On the Collection, Analysis, and Use of Data in Microplastic Research.”

Dr. Kristina Enders worked as a doctoral candidate at the IOW from 2017 to 2021 as part of the BONUS MICROPOLL project. In 2025, she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled “Analogies between Microplastics and Natural Particles for Inventory Assessment in Aquatic Sediments.”

Dr. David Riedinger worked at the IOW from 2021 to 2024 as part of the BaltVib project. In December 2024, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis titled “Predictors for the Occurrence of Vibrio vulnificus: A Machine Learning Approach.”

Dr. Renè Janßen completed his PhD at the IOW in 2020. His research was concerned with the impletmentation of machine learning tools for the interpretation of 16S microbial community data. His focus was particularly on how the herbicide glyphosate influences the microbial community in the Baltic sea, and how machine learning tools such as artificial neural networks and random forests can be used for this purpose.

Dr. Katherina Kesy completed her PhD at the IOW in 2019 as part of the MikrOMik project. Her research was concerned with the microbial communities which form on microplastics. She was particularly interested in how microplastics, and associated microbial biofilms, affect other organisms in marine systems, notable the blue mussel Mytilus edulis and the lugworm Arenicola marina.

Dr. Lars Möller completed his PhD at the IOW in 2019. His research was mainly concerned with investigation into Vibrio bacteria, notably with how Chinese aquaculture can affect Vibrio community structure in nearby coastal systems.

 

Other Scientific Staff

Franziska Kläger worked at the IOW for a number of years. She performed research, including an investigation into how residual monomer contents in plastics can influence the interpretation of plastic degradation. However, her main role within the group was as co-ordinator for the project Microcatch_Balt.

Erik Zschaubitz war zwischen 2022 und 2025 am IOW im Rahmen des Projekts „OTC Genomics“ tätig .

Lukas Vogel war zwischen 2022 und 2025 am IOW im Rahmen des Projekts „OTC Genomics“ tätig .