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Sassi Benkaddour
PhD Candidate |
Sassi is from Toulon in the south of France where he was studying chemistry during his Bachelor’s degree. After these three years, he chose to study analytical and environmental chemistry for his Master’s degree, during which he had the opportunity to participate in a first project related with the detection of antimony in neutral pH conditions using gold microwire electrode at the University of Liverpool with Dr. Pascal Salaun. He worked on a second project looking at the redox properties and reactivity of manganese oxide minerals here at the University of Lausanne with Dr. Jasquelin Peña. Sassi is now working on the rates and mechanisms of water and organic carbon oxidation coupled to MnO2 photoreduction for his PhD.
Sabesan comes from Montreux (CH). He did his BSc in natural sciences (FGSE) and is passionate about aquatic environment. With a taste to assess anthropogenic impacts on natural ecosystems and to better understand the physico-chemical processes that occur in the environnement, he started a master degree in Environmental science. His master thesis concerns the evaluation of spatial distribution for various trace metals in the Vidy Bay (Lausanne). During his free time, Sabesan is involved in different associations and also loves drinking beers after a good hike. |
| Gaitan Gehin
Master student |
Gaïtan did all his studies in Lausanne from preschool to Master’s degree. He spent a year in Rochester (NY, USA) learning English and came back to study environmental sciences at the University of Lausanne. During his Bachelor’s degree, he did a field study of vegetation responses after a river restoration with Prof. Stuart Lane. For his Master’s degree in Biogeosciences, Gaïtan chose to investigate biological and geological interactions with the University of Neuchâtel’s microbiological expertise and University of Lausanne’s geological knowledge. During this time, he had the opportunity to work as an assistant for Prof. Jasquelin Peña on biogenic manganese oxides. Being excited by this subject, he decided to explore it deeper by researching the redox properties of those biogenic manganese oxides for his Master thesis.
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Zijiao Meng
Master student |
Zijiao comes from Sichuan (Chine). After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry there, she switched to work in brand-marketing for 10 years. Shocked by the growing pollution problem in China, she decided to start to study natural ecosystems ( Master in biogeosciences) in 2016 and finally choose soil bioremediation as her master thesis.She hopes that one day she could apply the knowledge she has learned in Switzerland to solve the pollution problem of her country.In her spare time, Zijiao has been working hard to make her Chinese stomach fall in love with Swiss cheese, especially sheep cheese.
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Arne David Junghans
Master student |
After obtaining his BSc in Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Applied Sciences Z¨urich (ZHAW) in 2017 Arne decided to move to the French speaking part of Switzerland. In his current studies for the MSc in Environmental Geosciences at the University of Lausanne he is writing his thesis about the bacterial production and the contaminant absorption potential of manganese oxides in the team of Dr. Jasquelin Pe˜na. During his childhood in the mountains of Davos he got fascinated by the beauty and the experiences the environment has to offer, including the interactions between nature and humans. He is also active in the student association for sustainability Unipoly and other environmental NGOs. During his studies he spent two exchange semesters in Padova (I) and Bucharest (Ro).