Antonia Siebenbrunner, student employee at the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry of Montanuniversität Leoben (https://aach.unileoben.ac.at/en/), was awarded with the best poster award at the Young Analytical Chemists Forum (Junganalytiker*innenforum, JA*F) of the Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry (ASAC, https://asac.at/de). The event took place from 16th – 17th May 2024, at the Institute of Chemistry of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz (https://analytische-chemie.uni-graz.at/en/), featuring 18 oral talks and 35 poster presentations.

In her poster, entitled “Development of DGT Passive Sampling for the In Situ Assessment of Time-Integrated Strontium Concentrations and Isotope Ratios in Freshwaters”, Antonia presented the main results of her bachelor thesis, dealing with the development and application of a new passive sampling method in combination with plasma-based mass spectrometry for advanced environmental and geochemical analysis of strontium in natural river systems. Upon successful method validation in controlled laboratory experiments, the developed method has been already applied in the field at two different sampling locations along the Mur in Austria, providing unique insights into the geochemical signatures of the river.

We thank the conference organizers and the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (Springer, https://link.springer.com/journal/216) for sponsoring the award!