Dr. Maximilian Mandl is a geochemist and the founder of Ungiftig.
He holds a doctorate in geochemistry from ETH Zurich. His dissertation examined terrestrial and lunar rocks isotope-geochemically (including titanium isotopes by MC-ICP-MS with the double-spike technique) to reconstruct the geological relationship between Earth and the Moon. Before that he earned an M.Sc. in Geology at the University of Wyoming, where he measured radon and radium isotopes in Yellowstone precipitation and hot springs, and a B.Sc. (summa cum laude) at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
His analytical experience ranges from XRF, ICP-MS and MC-ICP-MS to scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX), the method by which asbestos minerals are unambiguously identified; it extends to data analysis and programming (Python, R). As Project Manager, Long-term Safety at Nagra (Switzerland) he was responsible for reports on the long-term geological safety of the planned deep repository for high-level radioactive waste.
At Ungiftig he brings this geochemical and analytical expertise to building-pollutant consulting; a current focus of the work is in southern Burgenland.
Outside geochemistry, he is a private pilot (SEP).
Doctoral dissertation
- Mandl MB. Titanium isotope fractionation on the Earth and Moon: Constraints on magmatic processes and Moon formation. ETH Zürich (2019). doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000351171
Selected publications
- Sliwinski JT, Mandl M, Stoll HM. Machine learning application to layer counting in speleothems. Computers & Geosciences 171, 105287 (2023). doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2022.105287
- Williams NH, Fehr MA, Parkinson IJ, Mandl MB, Schönbächler M. Titanium isotope fractionation in solar system materials. Chemical Geology 568, 120009 (2021). doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.120009
- Grigg LD, Engle KJ, Smith AJ, Shuman BN, Mandl MB. A multi-proxy reconstruction of climate during the late-Pleistocene to early Holocene transition in the northeastern USA. Quaternary Research 102, 188-204 (2021). doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.127
- Mandl MB, Shuman BN, Marsicek J, Grigg L. Estimating the regional climate signal in a late Pleistocene and early Holocene lake-sediment δ18O record from Vermont, USA. Quaternary Research 86(1), 67-78 (2016). doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2016.02.009