Carla Vilela has a graduation in Chemical Engineering (2004), master in Materials Science and Engineering (2008) and PhD in Chemistry (2012) by the University of Aveiro (UA, Portugal). During 4 years (2004-2008), she was a laboratory technician responsible for the laboratory management and organization, as well as for the technical and laboratorial support to graduation and post-graduation students and R&D projects at UA. Between 2009 and 2011 she was a volunteer assistant lecturer of the laboratory classes of Elements of Physical Chemistry and General Chemistry in the Chemistry Department of the same university. In 2013, she started a post-doctoral project (FCT grant) at CICECO–Aveiro Institute of Materials.

Currently, she is a researcher at the same institute and her main research interests include the sustainable use of biopolymers for the development of novel functional nanostructured materials for both biomedical and technological applications. She is the author/co-author of 1 book, 3 book chapters, 54 articles in international peer reviewed multidisciplinary high impact journals (ISI, h-index 20, citations: +1300), and several oral and poster communications in national and international conferences. CVilela is a member of the Portuguese Materials Society (SPM), European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence (EPNOE), Editorial Board of Cogent Chemistry (Taylor & Francis) and Topic Editor of Nanomaterials (MDPI).