As a Researcher at the Department of Materials and Ceramic Engineering in the University of Aveiro (UA, Centre for Research in Ceramics and Composite Materials-CICECO), Ana Violeta Girão has mainly centered her research around developing and characterizing nanostructured materials for effective and practical applications, working in carbon-based materials for water pollutants sensing and electroxidation for the last few years.

She graduated in Chemistry (2001) from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, with a Merit ProDEP scholarship. A.V. Girão soon started her research career (2002) with a scientific scholarship whilst acquiring a specialized post-graduation in Applied Analytical Chemistry (2003), at the same Institution. She holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Leeds, U.K., studying the nanostructure and degradation of C-S-H in Portland and blended cement pastes (2007, EPSRC funding). During her PhD, A.V. Girão acquired experience as a lecturer in materials applied microscopy as well as expertise in Electron Microscopy techniques, amongst others. She returned to Portugal to become Head of the R&D Department at SRE, a specialized company in fuel cells manufacturing. A.V. Girão started working as a Post-Doc researcher (2010-2016, FCT funding) at the University of Aveiro (UA-CICECO) on the nanofabrication of new platforms for SERS sensing, whilst teaching laboratories of Transmission Electron Microscopy. In early 2016, she continued her research within a scientific project between Bosch Thermal Technology and UA, becoming a Researcher at UA-CICECO since 2019. A.V. Girão has supervised MsC and Industrial Project students, (co-)authored more than 30 SCI papers, book chapters and communications, under permanent extension of her scientific production as well as lecturing experience.