Florian Meirer

Research

“We want to look at functional materials and understand how they work – in catalysis, the environment, and even in old oil paintings.”

Research focus:
Catalysis, Spectroscopy, X-ray physics, Environmental analysis, Data mining & Chemometrics

Florian Meirer is Associate Professor in the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis research group at Utrecht University. The group develops and works with various spectro-microscopic techniques to study (functional) nanomaterials in various fields such as catalysis and environmental analysis. In particular, in heterogenous catalysis, Florian focuses on understanding mass transport in catalyst bodies by X-ray microscopy, Super-resolution Localization Microscopy, and diffusion simulations. Projects from environmental analysis and data mining include exploring decision support systems for conservators treating old oil paintings by correlating hyperspectral imaging methods as well as studying nanoplastics and their impact on the environment.

Concerning the latter, as a member of the UPlasticS3 network, Florian Meirer is involved in research into so-called nanoplastics, which are very difficult to detect with conventional techniques. Using highly specialised techniques, the team is able to measure these minuscule particles, down to less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair. Aims are to also measure type and age of these particles to understand how they form and interact with the environment. The group is currently working on detecting nanoplastics also in tissue and blood, which is especially challenging. If this becomes possible it will help not only in detecting the plastic itself, but also in assessing any toxicological effects.

Fields of interest:

• Heterogenous Catalysis
• Spectro-microscopy
• Tomography & Network analysis
• Environmental analysis
• Data mining & chemometrics

Links

• Profile at Utrecht University
• Google Scholar profile
• LinkedIn
• ORCID
• Plastic Soup story
• Flight through a virtual catalyst particle

C.V.

Florian Meirer started his work at Utrecht University in 2013. He is a regular user at different Synchrotron Radiation Facilities throughout Europe (ESRF, PETRAIII & ANKA) and the USA (SSRL & NSLS) focusing on the characterisation of complex hierarchical materials by means of x-ray spectro-microscopic methods.

2020-Present
Associate Professor in the Inorganic Chemistry & Catalysis Group

2013-2020
Assistant Professor in the Inorganic Chemistry & Catalysis Group

2010-2013
Post-doc at Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy (Marie-Curie COFUND fellowship, EU project of FP6, acronym DART

2009-2010
Post-doc at the Stanford Synchrotron radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, CA, USA (Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship of the Austrian Science Fund), Supervisor: Prof. Piero Pianetta

2008
ScD (Dr. techn.) in Technical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics, Vienna, Austria, Thesis: “Applications of synchrotron radiation induced TXRF-XANES analysis”, ISBN-13: 978-3838107929, Supervisor: Prof. Christina Streli

2005  
MSc (Dipl.-Ing.) in Technical Physics, Vienna University of Technology

Other publications

See earlier publications on Scopus.