Leonie Jurkschat

Leonie grew up in rural Oxfordshire, UK and after completing school spent 15 months as a volunteer English teacher in rural Nepal. She then decided to go back to her German roots and in 2018 moved to the wonderful city of Leipzig for a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. During this time, she realised her passion lies with inorganic and analytical chemistry, and completed her bachelor’s thesis as an industrial internship in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, working on “Urban Mining” – recovery of precious metals from electronic waste. Continuing with a Master’s, she specialised further in inorganic, analytical and environmental chemistry whilst holding a part-time position at Bruker Optics, working in research & development of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS). Her search for a final project brought her to REEcover – a perfect match for her passion for recycling, metals and sustainable development.
Besides chemistry, Leonie’s other love are languages. She speaks three fluently, knows the basics in two more and has studied another four! Outside the lab she enjoys mountain walks, going salsa dancing and all kinds of music.