Björn Meermann, born in 1982, studied chemistry at the University of Münster and obtained his doctorate in 2009 in the working group of Prof. Dr. Uwe Karst. This was followed by a postdoctoral period of almost two years at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in the working group of Prof. Dr. Frank Vanhaecke. In 2012 he joined the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) in Koblenz as a research associate and postdoctoral researcher (“Habilitand”) in analytical chemistry, in association with the University of Koblenz-Landau. Since June 2019, Björn Meermann has been Head of Division 1.1 “Inorganic Trace Analysis” at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin.
Activities
He is ombudsman for Good Scientific Practice at the BAM, furthermore he is involved as a member of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), of its division Analytical Chemistry and of the German Working Group for Analytical Spectroscopy (DAAS) in the GDCh’s division Analytical Chemistry.
Awards
Björn Meermann received a PhD scholarship from the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), Osnabrück, as well as a postdoc scholarship from the German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina – National Academy of Sciences. In 2019 he was awarded the Fachgruppen prize of the GDCh’s Analytical Chemistry section.
Focus
The research focus of Dr. Meermann is (i) the development of methods for the analysis of nanoparticles and single cells by means of AF4/ICP-(SF)MS as well as single-particle/single-cell ICP-TOF-MS, (ii) the development of methods for element speciation in environmental samples using HPLC, CE on-line coupled with ICP-MS, (iii) the use of stable isotopes as tracers and for on-line isotope dilution and (iv) the development of methods for the analysis of non-metals (e.g. fluorine) by means of high-resolution-continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS GF MAS).
His research lies where materials meet the natural environment or the life sciences. He investigates the release of elements or element species and (nano)particles from materials into the environment and their possible uptake by organisms and cells, with the aim of assessing the influence of (metal based) materials on the environment.
Methods
- Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS, ICP-SFMS, ICP-TOF-MS)
- On-line coupling techniques for species analysis (CE, LC, FFF/ICP-MS)
- Single-particle- and single-cell-ICP-TOF-MS
- HR-CS GF MAS (high-resolution-continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry)