Martina Preiner

Dr. Martina Preiner studied chemistry and biochemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. After receiving her Master’s degree in physical chemistry, she build up a career as a Science journalist. She worked for various German media outlets for seven years before interviewing a researcher on the origin of life drew her back into the laboratory. For her doctorate at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf she studied the parallels between geochemical and biochemical CO2 fixation, during a Postdoc at Utrecht University and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) she then got to travel to and investigate deep-sea hydrothermal systems. Since 2023 she is leading her own research group at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, focusing on organic cofactors to actively connect geochemical and biochemical CO2 fixation.