Antje received her diploma in Marine Geology in 1993 from the University of Kiel (Germany) and her Doctorate of Natural Sciences (DSc/PhD) in 1999 from the same university. After her PhD she was contracted first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as an associated scientist by the Leibniz Laboratory for Radiocarbon Dating and Isotope Research in Kiel. In 2001 she moved to Portugal where she has worked since; first as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a researcher. In Portugal she has led 4 research projects (PORTO, INTER-TRACE, MOWCADYN, Iberia-Forams) and participated in numerous others. She has supervised 3 Master students, 1 PhD student, 1 Post-doc and is currently supervising 2 PhD students (and is looking for more!). She is an active member of the international scientific community, collaborating with numerous scientists from around the world, regularly reviewing manuscripts for high-ranking journals and evaluating project proposals for funding agencies in Europe, Israel, USA, and New Zealand. She is currently an editor for the journal Quaternary Science Reviews and represents Portugal in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) in the ECORD Science Support and Advisory Commnittee (ESSAC) and since June 2020 also in the Science Evaluation Panel (SEP-Science).
By training she is a paleoceanographer with expertise especially in stable isotope data (foraminiferal carbonate, modern sea water) and planktonic foraminifers (fauna, biostratigraphy), but has also worked on radiocarbon dating and tephrastratigraphy. She, furthermore, uses foraminiferal trace element records and grain-size data for paleo-reconstructions. Currently, her research is focussed on understanding centennial-to-orbital scale climate variations (Greenland stadial/interstadial cycles; abrupt climate change during glacials/ climate transitions; interglacial variability) and their impact on the thermohaline circulation (surface, intermediate, deep water) and climate in general.
She is working on time intervals ranging from the recent past to the middle to early Pleistocene (300-1800 ka) and the Pliocene (3.5 – 4.6 Ma) and in geographic/hydrographic regions spanning from the polar Nordic Seas and Labrador Sea down to the subtropical gyre.
Within the scope of the GEOTRACES program, she is analysing the stable isotope (H, O, C) values of seawater and relates them to the modern hydrographic conditions.