Tlanezi Lucero Martinez Reyes enrolled in the study program "Water Resources Engineering and Management" from 2020 to 2022. Her outstanding master thesis entitled "Innovative method for detection and identification of microplastic particles in sediment bed, based on fluorescent tagging with Nile Red and Methylene Blue - Case study Großer Brombach lake" was supervised by Maria Ponce and Dr. Stefan Haun from the Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems.
The master thesis deals with a fluorescence-based method for the determination of microplastics. The background is the task to determine the pollution of the aquatic environment by microplastics, especially of sediments in reservoirs, with a method that can be automated. The work is thus of fundamental importance, as the issue of microplastics in the aquatic environment is a serious problem.