My research investigates how contaminants are transported, transformed, stored, and remobilized across interconnected environmental compartments, from soils and aquifers to rivers, wetlands, and urban environments. I seek to understand how hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes interact to shape contaminant exposure and ecosystem resilience under global environmental change.
Current research focuses on:
A major environmental challenge is that contamination often persists beyond emissions through storage, transformation, and remobilization within environmental systems. My research aims to develop a process-based understanding of these dynamics by combining environmental biogeochemistry, isotope geochemistry, microbial ecology, and sustainability science.
Particular attention is given to reactive environmental interfaces that act as biogeochemical hotspots controlling contaminant fate, water quality, and ecosystem functioning. Ultimately, this work seeks to support the sustainable management and long-term resilience of water resources and socio-hydrosystems.
I am the scientific coordinator of the Organic and Isotopic Biogeochemistry Lab, one of the analytical units of the PACITE Platform at ITES (University of Strasbourg, CNRS). The laboratory is jointly operated with Benoît Guyot, engineer at ITES, who oversees the development, operation, and analytical support of the platform's instrumentation and isotope-based methodologies.
The laboratory develops and applies advanced chemical and isotopic approaches to investigate the sources, transport, transformation, and fate of contaminants in environmental systems. Analytical capabilities include compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA), isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS, Delta V+), high-resolution mass spectrometry (Orbitrap, Exploris 240), and dedicated workflows for organic micropollutants and environmental tracers.
PACITE is accredited by the University of Strasbourg's CoRTecS network, and all its instruments are part of the French Experimental Geochemistry Network (RéGEF, CNRS–INSU).
More information: Organic and Isotopic Biogeochemistry Laboratory
| Since 2025 | Director - Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute SWITCH | Sustainability of water & cities (https://switch.unistra.fr) |
| Since 2024 | Scientific Delegate Health-Environment for INSU-CNRS |
| Since 2024 | Associate Editor Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN, IF 8.2) |
| 2021-2024 | Director of the Research Initiative in Sustainability and the Environment (RISE/FERED) (https://fered.unistra.fr/) |
| Since 2019 | Research Professor CNRS (DR) |
| 2013 | Habilitation (HDR): Université de Strasbourg, France |
| Since 2009 | Research scientist: National Centre for Scientific Research – CNRS, France (LHyGeS) |
| 2008-2009 | Post-doc: Laboratory of Hydrology and Geochemistry of Strasbourg (LHyGeS), UdS /ENGEES, CNRS ; Strasbourg, France |
| 2005-2008 | Ph.D. thesis in Isotope Biogeochemistry: Department of Isotope Biogeochemistry of the Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany (http://www.ufz.de). PhD Fellowships within Marie Curie ITN programme. |
| 2003-2005 | Master of advanced studies in Hydrology and Water Resources Management : Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (EPFL), (ETHZ) and the Centre of Hydrogeology of the University of Neuchâtel (CHYN). Master thesis at IIT Chenai (India). |
| 1998-2003 | Master in Biology (spec. Microbial ecology): University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) |
A) Peer-reviewed articles (ISI) (>120; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-4666 and https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=8OppYNUAAAAJ&hl=fr), here are the recent (last 3 years) and main review articles :
2026
2025
H Turan, M Sebilo, G Imfeld, J Masbou, M Monperrus. (2025). Potential of Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA) to Trace Galaxolide Reactivity and Origin. ACS ES&T Water 5 (2), 566-574
2024
Liu X., Akay C., Köpke J., Kümmel S., Richnow H.H., Imfeld G. (2024). Direct Phototransformation of Sulfamethoxazole Characterized by Four-Dimensional Element Compound Specific Isotope Analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 58, 23, 10322–10333. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02666
Gallego S., Sungthong R., Guyot B., Saphy A., Devers-Lamrani M., Martin-Laurent F., Imfeld G. (2024). Tracking atrazine degradation in soil combining 14C-mineralisation assays and compound-specific isotope analysis. Chemosphere, 142981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142981
Borreca A., Vuilleumier S. & Imfeld G. Combined effects of micropollutants and their degradation on prokaryotic communities at the sediment–water interface. (2024). Scientific Report 14, 16840. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-67308-y
Vinyes-Nadal M., Masbou J., Kümmel S., Gehre M., Imfeld G., Otero N., Torrentó C. (2024). Novel extraction methods and compound-specific isotope analysis of methoxychlor in environmental water and aquifer slurry samples.Science of the Total Environment 931:172858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172858
Skrzypek G., Dunn P.J.H., Imfeld G. (2024). Analytical improvements and developments in stable isotope laboratories for HCNOS analyses. MethodsX 12: 102769. 10.1016/j.mex.2024.102769
Liu X., Akay C., Köpke J., Kümmel S., Richnow H.H., Imfeld G. (2024). Direct Phototransformation of Sulfamethoxazole Characterized by Four-Dimensional Element Compound Specific Isotope Analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 58, 23, 10322–10333. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02666
Boyer A. et al. (2024) The social connectivity of subsurface flows: Towards a better integration of the vertical dimension in socio‐hydrosystem studies. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water 11 (2), e1703. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1703
Liu X., Zhang J., Richnow H.H., Imfeld G. (2024). Novel stable isotope concepts to track antibiotics in wetland systems. Journal of Environmental Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2024.02.005
Masbou J., Höhener P., Payraudeau S., Martin-Laurent F., Imfeld G. (2024). Stable isotope composition of pesticides in commercial formulations: The ISOTOPEST database. Chemosphere, 141488
2023
Junginger T., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2023). Emissions of the Urban Biocide Terbutryn from Facades: The Contribution of Transformation Products. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08192
Prieto-Espinoza M., Di Chiara R., Muller E.E.L., Vuilleumier S., Imfeld G., Weill S. (2023). Combining multi-phase flow and pathway-specific reactive transport modeling to investigate the impact of water table fluctuations on dichloromethane biodegradation. Advances in Water Resources. 104519.
Linke, F., Edun, O., Junginger, T., Payraudeau S., Preusser F., Imfeld G., Lange J. (2023) Biocides in Soils of Urban Stormwater Infiltration Systems-Indications of Inputs from Point and Non-point Sources. Water Air Soil Pollution 234, 586.
Junginger T., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2023). Emissions of the Urban Biocide Terbutryn from Facades: The Contribution of Transformation Products. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08192
Hofstetter T., Bakkour R., Gehre M., Haderlein S., Höhener P., Hunkeler D., Imfeld G., Jochmann M.A., Kümmel S., Martin P., Pati S., Schmidt T., Vogt C., Elsner M. (2023). Compound-specific isotope analysis of organic water contaminants: Perspectives for assessing environmental fate and managing chemical pollution. Nature Water, 1-17
Gilevska T., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2023). Evaluating pesticide degradation in artificial wetlands with compound-specific isotope analysis: A case study with the fungicide dimethomorph. Science of the Total Environment. 165767.
Imfeld G., Guyot B., Wiegert C., Payraudeau S. (2023). Soil management drives copper and zinc export in runoff from vineyard plots. Water Air Soil Pollut. 234:357.
Saaidi P.-L., Grünberger O., Samouelian A, Le Roux Y., Richard A., Devault D.A., Feidt C., Benoit P., Evrard O., Imfeld G., Mouvet C., Voltz M. (2023). Is a dissipation half-life of 5 years for chlordecone in soils of the French West Indies relevant? Environmental Pollution, 324 121283.
Masbou J., Payraudeau S., Guyot B., Imfeld G. (2023). Dimethomorph degradation in vineyards examined by isomeric and isotopic fractionation. Chemosphere 313, 137341.
Bahi A., Sauvage S., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G., Sanchez-Perez J-M., Chaumet B., Tournebize J. (2023). Process formulations and controlling factors of pesticide dissipation in artificial ponds: A critical review. Ecological Engineering 186, 106820
Prieto-Espinoza M., Di Chiara R., Belfort B., Weill S., Imfeld G. (2023). Reactive transport of micropollutants in laboratory aquifers undergoing transient exposure periods. Science of The Total Environment, 15917.
