Dr. Christina Kuchendorf

Christina M. Kuchendorf (Biologist) is a researcher and project coordinator at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-2, at Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany. Having graduated with Geobotany and Computer Science, she started out in a joint field project in China and Jülich, and later in Montpellier, France, with the main topics of plant nutrition and resilience against flooding and other stress, and the development of sensors and measurement techniques to this regard – later expanding to soil and water microorganism performance in lab and field. Since 2013 and back in Jülich, algae were her focus; first with assessment of the added-value-chain of microalgal lipid production to jet fuel; and since 2016 with the coordination of the IBG-2 AlgaeScienceCenter with three pilot scale algae production facilities. Control and study of microalgal productivity and growth dynamics in large-volume cultures have since then been a major topic. The ultimate target is to simplify algal CO2 sequestration for a broader accessibility and better connectivity into industry, agriculture and city environments - toward autonomous intelligent algae culture control (and the technical implementation thereof in a modern bioeconomy). Productivity and reliability of stable microalgae/bacteria communities are also a relevant part. Last, but not least focus is the usage of algae in plant nutrition, especially the possible benefits of algal biomass and other organic fertilizers in improvement of poor soils and nutrient cycling – always aiming to keep science applicable and working toward circular bioeconomy.