Karol Strutyski discovered chemistry, for the first time, in his aunt’s lab and he enjoys studying the little differences that make a huge impact on the result. Junior Researcher at CICECO, hired as part of the 5th Edition of the Individual Competition to Incentive Scientific Employment, Karol works mainly with theoretical studies of covalent organic structures, trying to predict their structure.

Nicolas Schaeffer was always curious and "Why"" was his favorite question when he was a child. For Nicolas Chemistry is the science of the XXI century and, now, he was awarded an ERC starting grant to set up a research group to design and implement a new class of solvent to improve the selectivity of lanthanide separation compared to traditional solvent extraction.

Paula Barbosa discovered physics because of COSMOS series, from Carl Sagan. The researcher used to watch it with her dad. Paula has been a Junior Researcher at CICECO until recently. Now, she is an Assistant Researcher, hired under the 6th Individual Scientific Employment Incentive Contest, and she is investigating a new generation of environmentally sustainable and high-performance batteries, display devices, and fuel cells.

Flávio Figueira became fascinated by science because of science fiction. Upon seeing all those future gadgets, he hoped that one day his research would be behind the creation of the new reality. Figueira is currently a researcher at the University of Aveiro, where he has been working on the preparation of new Metal-Organic Frameworks and studying their guest-induced optical changes.

Augusto Pedro is driven to be a scientist to uncover solutions to societal challenges. He has been a Junior Researcher at CICECO since 2021, under the FCT/CEEC agreement and he works with ionic liquids to the development of more efficient and sustainable manufacturing technologies for biopharmaceuticals.

Maxim Ivanov"s fascination with science began in childhood, leading him to establish a personal laboratory at home. Currently, he is a junior researcher and leads the direction of advanced BioMicroElectromechnical systems for hard tissue engineering with the idea of using piezoelectric biopolymers as culture substrates for tissue engineering and a base for functional coatings of prosthesis devices.

Francisca A. e Silva is a Junior Researcher at CICECO hired under the FCT Scientific Employment Stimulus – Individual Call 2018. She develops research at the intersection between Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Green Chemistry, contributing to improve the sustainability of purification processes in environmental and health applications.

Mirtha Lourenço is a junior researcher at CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials focusing her research on the development and structural elucidation of porous materials for adsorption and catalysis applications. Recently, she was awarded an ERA postdoctoral fellowship to design sustainable porous silicas for optimal CO² uptake from biogas.

Filipe Hobi Bordón Sosa is a researcher associated to CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials and is involved in a BBI JU project (GRETE). His current research focuses on developing green and sustainable technologies for valorizing biomass, technical lignins, and industrial waste using alternative solvents into bio-based chemicals and materials towards integrating into biorefineries.