Karin Norrfors

SLU

Sweden

 

Karin Norrfors is currently a Post Doc at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and within NanoFASE she is involved in WP7.

I earned my PhD in March 2015 in Chemistry at the Division of Applied Physical Chemistry, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, which I started after my master degree in Chemistry and Chemical engineering. In my dissertation work, I was studying the effect of colloid size or γ-irradiation on the colloidal stability and sorption capacity of radionuclides onto nano to micro sized montmorillonite colloids in a context of a design for a repository of spent nuclear fuel in Sweden. Most of my experimental work during my PhD was performed in cooperation with Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal (INE), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany where I was a visiting researcher during a total of 8 months over a 2 year period.

I'm intrigued with transport of metallic pollutants in terrestrial media, since my main research interest is physiochemical processes in interfacial reactions between metallic components, mineral surfaces and/or humic substances, as well as investigations regarding colloidal stability.

In NanoFASE, I will work in WP7 with developing kinetic fate descriptors for nanomaterials in soils, using column tests on stacked soils and intact columns. These tests will serve as a basis to validate the results from basic batch tests done at CEH, Lancaster. I also mean to analyze speciation of nanomaterials in soils using field flow fractionation coupled to single-particle ICP-MS. I will then build a final model for transport and speciation of nanomaterials in different soils. This model will be used to describe the geographical spreading of nanomaterials in the Thames basin.

Beside science, music is a large part of my life. I earned my Bachelor of Arts in Chamber Music, playing viola and violin in parallel to my engineering studies. Together with my violins, I explore the world of folkloric, world, pop/rock/jazz and classical music.