Martine Leermakers is an Analytical Chemist and obtained her PhD at the VUB in 1998 on the Biogeochemical Cycle of Mercury in The Scheldt Estuary and North Sea. Her research interests include the development of analytical techniques for trace metals, organometals, metalloids and radionuclides as well as the study of the geochemical cycling of these elements in environmental compartments as well as human biomonitoring and  the impact on human health. In the last years she has been working on the development of passive sampling gel diffusion techniques for in situ trace metal speciation DGT (diffusive gradients in thin films) and DET (diffusive equilibrium in thin films) for different metals and radio-isotopes and applying these techniques in both pristine (open ocean) as well as heavily contaminated sites such as mining sites.