Dr. Wolfgang Ludwig

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Ludwig is a senior scientist (59 yrs) who integrated the University of Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD) in 1998. In 2008, he obtained a regular professor position at UPVD and since 2015, he is the director of the research unit Cefrem (about 60 persons) jointly supported by UPVD and the French CNRS. Wolfgang Ludwig was trained in geology during his studies at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and then became specialized in aquatic geochemistry with a special emphasis on (Mediterranean) rivers (water, sediment, carbon, nutrient and pollutant fluxes) in the context of global and climate change. Also plastic pollution in rivers and coastal environments is a growing topic in his recent research activities. For example, in 2019 he participated in the Tara Microplastic mission and published in 2021, behind one of his PhD students as the leading author, an article on riverine micro-plastics in Science (Weiss et al., 2021). During this work, Wolfgang Ludwig became aware of the methodological problems which are related to the research on plastic cycling in the oceans, which is one of his motivations to initiate further research on this topic.