Dr. Dipl.-Chem. Silke Merchel was elected as a Councillor of the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) by EAG members in November 2022.
She will serve from January 2023 to December 2025 and participate in council discussions, decisions, initiatives and serve the Communications committee.
The EAG is run by a Council made of seven officer-councillors and nine to eleven councillors.

The EAG was officially established in 1985 with the goal of promoting geochemistry internationally and in particular providing a forum for the presentation of geochemistry, exchange of ideas, publications and recognition of scientific excellence. The main activity of the EAG is the organization of the Goldschmidt Conferences® on odd-numbered years in Europe, in partnership with the Geochemical Society.

Silke describes her motivation for serving the EAG council: "From the scientific perspective, I like to promote the excellent analytical infrastructures in Europe and abroad. Although, large-scale facilities have a great potential for solving problems at the research frontiers of modern geochemistry, their use is often hampered by a reputation of being complicated, expensive and not-easily accessible. My ambition is to empower the EAG community with improved access to these sophisticated facilities and analytical methods to better address societally highly relevant challenges on Earth and in the environment. Educating the public on the value of these projects is a parallel goal. As a trained chemist, I have worked my whole scientific life in a true interdisciplinary environment, very often embodying the "missing link" between researchers from geoscience and physics, hence, I hope I am well-prepared to serve the EAG."