Geert Cornelis

I am an environmental engineer and soil scientist and currently an associate professor in the Soil Chemistry group at the department of Soil and Environment. I have previously been affiliated as a researcher, both in SLU and Gothenburg University. My post-docs where with Mike McLaughlin (University of Adelaide, Australia) on the fate of nanoparticles in natural soils and with Martin Hassellöv (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) on sensitive detection methods for nanoparticles in environmental samples (single-particle ICP-MS, FFF-ICP-MS). My PhD. in chemical engineering (KULeuven, Belgium) focused on geochemistry of oxyanion forming metals and metalloids in alkaline wastes.

I currently research the fate of engineered nanoparticles, microoplastics and colloid-associated metals in soils in the context of risk assessment of metals or anthropogenic particles or for developing soil remediation technologies. I think the role of macropore flow and bioturbation in the vertical transport of micro- and nanoplastics is poorly understood and I quantify these processes in the lab and in the field. I would also like to know whether these processes become faster when microplastics age naturally in the field. I also investigate distribution of different types of nano- or micro sized zerovalent iron particles in the lab and the field and I want to better understand how these particles can immobilise arsenic when it is at its most mobile under anoxic conditions. These studies include investigating the molecular environment of As and Fe using XANES and EXAFS signals. I develop particle transport models based on column tests to calculate attachment efficiencies and using these for predicting zerovalent iron transport in the field followed by field validation of the region of influence using e.g. magnetic susceptibility measurements.

I manage ICP-MS and FFF-UV-MALLS instruments for which I also develop analytical methods and tools such as the Nanocount software for advanced treatment of single particle ICP-MS methods based on deconvoluting out the background signals. I also develop laser ablation single particle ICP-MS which allows a particle-per-particle analysis of nanomaterials in solid samples such as soils, sludges, ashes or even food.

I am course responsible for the Master's course in environmental geochemistry (Mv0218)

I am a docent since 2019