She received a Bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Kiel, Germany, a MS in Oceanography from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from the College of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. She completed postdoctoral training in marine biogeosciences at the University of Bremen in Germany before coming to Arizona State University in 2000. Her research bridges biogeochemistry and plankton ecology, particularly focusing on the biological carbon pump, its relationship to plankton community composition and surface productivity. Most of this e-Lecture was completed while a Fellow at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg (Advanced Research Institute) in Delmenhorst, Germany, in 2013.