Milena Latz graduated in 2023 as a Master of Chemistry and Biotechnology from a joint program of University of Leipzig and Ohio University. Since 2024 she works as a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Chemistry in the working group Microplastics, Nanoplastics, and Elements on the topic ‘Small plastic particles go long, wide and deep’.
As a part of the nanoINHALE cohort, her work focuses on the detection and quantification of airborne nanoplastics (< 1µm) in wild animal lung tissue- and atmospheric samples. Here, she focuses on the optimization of a novel high-resolution analytical method via TD-PTR-MS, as well as on generating reproducible and reliable results for nanoplastics concentrations during sample analysis.

Supervisor: Dr. Dušan Materić

Martin Simoneit studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig and completed his master's thesis in 2023 at the former Department of Ecological Chemistry. He is currently PhD student in the Department of Exposure Science, contributing to the nanoINHALE cohort.
His research focuses on assessing whether airborne micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) play a critical role in exposing air-breathing animals to plastic-associated chemicals in comparison to other intake routes. To achieve this, he works with lung and blubber tissues from raccoons inhabiting urban and rural areas, using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS to quantify the chemicals. Additionally, his research includes leaching experiments to study the release of plastic-associated chemicals from various polymers and particle sizes, lung proteome analysis for a subset of samples, and chemoassays to evaluate the reactivity of plastic-associated chemicals with lung proteins.

Supervisor: Dr. Elisa Rojo Nieto

Thies Hamann studied physics in Berlin for his Bachelor's degree and meteorology in Leipzig for his Master's degree. In his Master's thesis, he investigated the role of vegetation on air pollution extreme events (ozone and aerosols) using atmospheric models. He is currently PhD student in the Department Monitoring and Exploration Technologies (MET). As part of nanoINHALE, he is going to analyze the atmospheric dynamics of micro- and nanoplastic particles and identify their major sources by using the weather and climate models ICON and ICON-ART.

Supervisor: Dr. Lennart Schüler