IAEA Profile: When Passion Meets Purpose to Protect Ocean Health

Hatje knew little about nuclear techniques when she began studying oceanography, but that changed when she moved from Brazil to Sydney, Australia, to pursue a PhD. She conducted most of her experimental work at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANTSO). "It was my first experience using nuclear techniques to study processes that control the levels of trace metals - such as zinc, iron and chromium - in water. I applied these techniques while conducting marine pollution research in Sydney Harbour."

Later, she used nuclear techniques to determine the chronology of environmental contamination of several marine ecosystems in Bahia, Brazil. She extracted cores of sediment from the coastal and ocean floor, a method that preserves the integrity of sediment layers. "I used dated sediment cores to examine the historical record of pollution," she said, "and I correlated the data to the diverse human activities and how they changed over time."

Hatje's educational journey prepared her for a new challenge to establish labs and projects focused on the marine environment at the Federal University of Bahia in a chemistry department that had never before supported ocean research. Around this time, Hatje began to work with a scientist who helped her navigate the Brazilian academic system. "I had the opportunity to work with a highly esteemed Brazilian scientist. Together, we managed two large projects," she said. "I learned a great deal from my colleague - how to run a research group, how to successfully secure large grants and the importance of having a strong network."

One of Hatje's greatest professional achievements is one that led to practical change. In 2013, while on a sabbatical at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the USA, Hatje had the chance to apply a method she had developed to evaluate rare earth elements in seawater to 20 years of water samples from San Francisco Bay. She found evidence of increasing levels of gadolinium, a naturally occurring element that is used as a contrast agent to increase the resolution of magnetic resonance imaging. "At the end of the day, this research had a very practical outcome that changed the monitoring programme of the area, with gadolinium now included in routine measurements of water quality in the Bay."