Silke Severmann

I am a chemical oceanographer stuck between a rock and a wet place. I study the modern ocean (preferably the smelliest mud I can lay my hands on) and the geological record that provides a rich archive of the processes that have changed our ocean world over time. I am particularly interested in iron, which is probably a refection of the anemia that inflicted me when I was younger. In my laboratory I have very expensive instruments that help me tease out chemical fingerprints in the mud and rocks much like the brush and powder on CSI TV shows. And when I grow up I want to be a mermaid — I can’t actually take credit for this last statement this is something one of my students wrote on a questionnaire asking why she wants to learn about the ocean.