Lorena Arias – Analyst Chemist

Lorena is an Analyst Chemist, graduated from the University of Concepción, and she has extensive experience in different kind of chemical analyses, as well as in the implementation of methodologies that satisfy the requirements derived from our experimental and field activities (i.e. mostly carbon chemistry).

She has a long experience working in chemical analysis and scientific research starting her career in 2010 associated to the Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry at the Environmental Sciences Center EULA Chile (i.e. laboratory accredited under NCh ISO 17025) in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of our university.

In this laboratory, she was involved in a wide spectrum of analytical techniques in surface and wastewater, including: analysis of cations and anions by Ion chromatography (IC), analysis of pesticides, PCP, PAHs in water and sediments by gas chromatography (GC), determination of fixed hydrocarbons by CG-MS and analysis of nutrients by molecular absorption (EAM), among others. Lorena joined our team in 2014, within the framework of her work as an analyst chemist for the Millennium Institute of Oceanography (IMO), and she is in charge of our chemical laboratory facilities, where we carry out different analyses such as: spectrophotometric and potentiometric pH, analysis of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) by the non-dispersive infrared method (NDIR), analysis of total alkalinity (AT) by potentiometric titration, and analysis of nutrients by spectrophotometry (EAM), among others.

She has participated in different research campaigns, including national (LowpHOX Expedition I and II, Atacamex Expedition, AGCS-61 Cabo de Hornos), and international expeditions (German Expedition HADES, RV-SONNE), where she has focused on studying the carbonate chemistry dynamic in the Anoxic Marine Zone (AMZ) off northern Chile, and in AT and DIC measurements of the first seawater samples obtained at more than 8,000 meters deep from the Atacama Trench (Atacamex and Hades).