Researcher ID :  http://www.researcherid.com/rid/E-4549-2013

Carmen Freire was born in 1976 in Venezuela. In 1994 she concluded high school at Escola Secundária José Estevão (Aveiro), and, motivated by an enormous interest in Chemistry, started her graduation in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Aveiro (UA).

After concluding her graduation in 1998, she started her PhD work, “Eucalyptus globulus Low Molecular Weight Organic Compounds: Behavior During Wood Kraft Pulping and Pulp Bleaching”, at the Chemistry Department of the University of Aveiro. In early 2003, she embraced a post-doctoral project on “Surface Chemical Modification of Cellulose Fibers for Novel Paper and Composite Materials”, developed jointly between the Department of Chemistry of UA and the EFPG (presently Pagora), Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble a forefront research group in the domain of Macromolecular Materials from Renewable Resources. During this period, she got a solid background and knowledge on the development and characterization of natural polymers-based materials.

Since 2006, as a Auxiliary Reseracher (from January 2006 to June 2011) and now as a Principal Researcher (FCT Researcher), she has leaded the research on materials and composites from cellulose and other polysaccharides within BioPol4Fun group at CICECO/UA .

Main achievements:

• 164 articles in SCI journals (December 2018).
• 3 National patents and 2 European patent.
• More than 170 communications in International Conferences
• Referee for several high impact factor international journals in the areas of biomacromolecules, polysaccharides, green and sustainable chemistry and materials in general
• Concluded the supervision of 3 PhD, 3 Post-Docs, 31 Master theses,

Her research interests are centred on the Chemistry of polymers from renewable resources (caracterization and application) and development of new sustainable composite materials and  nanostructured materails  for disntinct appications

BioPol4Fun- Innovation in biopolymeric functional materials and bioactive compounds

Supervisor or co-supervisor of 5 Pos-doctorate students, 10 PhD student and 4 Master students.

Armando Silvestre, Ana Barros-Timmons, Mara Freire, João Coutinho,Graça Neves, Paulo Claro, Iola Duarte  e Filipe Figueiredo (Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro),

Adelaide Almeida, Helena Oliveira (Department of Biology, University of Aveiro)

Paula Alexandrina Marques (TEMA, University of Aveiro)

Isabel Marrucho (IST)

Fátima Duarte (CEBAL, Beja)

Catarina Rosado (Universidade Lusófona, Lisboa)

Isabel Almeida e Paulo Costa (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto)

Fernando Dourado e Miguel Gama (University of Minho)

Stefan Spirk (TU Graz,  Austria)

Hélder Santos (University of Helsinki, Finland)

Pedro Fardim  (Abo Akademi, Finland and University of Leuven, Belgium)

Ana Alonsa Varona (UPV, San Sebastian)

Patrizia Sadocco (SSCCP, Stazione Sperimentale Carta, Cartoni e Paste per Carta, Italy)

Nuno H.C.S. Silva, Carla Vilela, Adelaide Almeida, Isabel M. Marrucho, Carmen S.R.Freire, Pullulan-based nanocomposite films for functional food packaging: Exploiting lysozyme nanofibers as antibacterial and antioxidant reinforcing additives, Food Hydrocolloids, 2018, 77, 921-930.

Louise Saidi, Carla Vilela, Helena Oliveira, Armando J.D. Silvestre, Carmen S.R. Freire, “Poly(N-methacryloyl glycine)/nanocellulose composites: pH-sensitive systems for controlled release of diclofenac”, Carbohydr. Polym., 2017, 169, 357-365.

Carla Vilela, Ricardo J. B. Pinto, Joel Coelho, M. R. M. Domingues, Sara Daina, Patrizia Sadocco, Sónia A. O. Santos, Carmen S. R. Freire, Bioactive chitosan/ellagic acid films with UV-light protection for active food packaging, Food Hydrocolloids, 2017, 73, 120-128.        

Joana F.B. Barata, Ricardo J.B. Pinto, Vanda I.R.C. Vaz Serra, Armando J.D. Silvestre, Tito Trindade, Maria Graça P.M.S. Neves, José A.S. Cavaleiro, Sara Daina, Patrizia Sadocco, Carmen S.R. Freire, “Fluorescent bioactive corrole grafted-chitosan films”, Biomacromolecules, 2016, 17, 1395-1403.                                                                                                                      

Liliana C. Tomé, Ricardo J. B. Pinto, Eliane Trovatti, Carmen S. R. Freire, Armando J. D. Silvestre, Carlos Pascoal Neto, Alessandro Gandini, Transparent bionanocomposites with improved properties prepared from acetylated bacterial cellulose and poly(lactic acid) through a simple approach, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 419-427

“NanoBioinks- Engineering bio-based nanofibers for the development of high performance bioinks for 3D bioprinting”, CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-031289, FCT/MCTES, (PI), 2018-                                                                                                                 
“CORLUTNA- Systems based on corrolic macrocycles for luminescent thermometry  at nanoscale”, Projeto nº 031523 com o apoio financeiro da Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/MCTES,  (co-PI) 2018-                                                                                             
“InPaCTus-  Products and Technologies from eucalipt”, RCI, I&DANI/AICEP, coordinated by Navigator Company, (PI of 3 sub-projects)

                                          
“MultiBiorefinery – Estratégias multiuso para a valorização de uma gama alargada de subprodutos agroflorestais e das pescas: Um passo em frente na criação de uma biorrefinaria integrada” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016403), (team member)                                       
“AgroForWealth – Biorefinery of agro-forest residues: a strategy for the valorization of resources for wealth and sustainability“; CCDRC (team member) 

                            
“INNOVATE- Implantable organic Devices for advanced therapies”, University of Algarve, University of Aveiro, PTDC/EEI-AUT/5442/2014, (PI at UA)

“DeepBiorefinery: "Natural Deep eutectic solvents: a platform to boost Eucalyptus globulus and Quercus suber cork integrated biorrefinery”, Universidade de Aveiro e ITQB. PTDC/AGR-TEC/1191/2014 (team member)