Dr Vannia Dos Santos Durndell

I current work as a Senior Technician in the radionuclide facility CoRIF.

I have been working at the University of Plymouth in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SoGEES) since 2020, previously as a Technician delivering support to the teaching and research team, undergraduate and postgraduate project students across and outside of the school. I have also been part of the teaching team for the CHM Advanced Analytical Techniques module (CHM3013 2021-2022 and 2022-2023) more specifically teaching Gas Chromatography. Concerning research development, I had an opportunity to take a secondment contract as a research assistant (July to September 2021) in surface treatment of absorptive materials for recovery of volatile anaesthetic gases in collaboration with academia and industry, with Dr Lee Durndell and industrial partner SageTech Medical. 

I previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher (2014 to 2018) in research institutes across the UK and Brazil where I gained extensive experience relating to the design and characterisation of hierarchically structured materials with catalytic activity for the transformation of biomass and waste materials into biofuels, value-added products and platform chemicals.

Qualifications

2010 - 2014 PhD in Chemistry (Design of materials with catalytic activity for biomass transformation), Universidade Federal do Parana - Brazil (period at Cardiff University -UK)

2008 - 2010 MSc in Chemistry, Universidade Federal do Parana - Brazil

2004 - 2008 BSc(Hons) in Chemistry, Universidade Federal do Parana - Brazil

Professional membership

Member of Royal Society of Chemistry

Research interests

Main research area: Material chemistry with a focus on solving environmental problems:

Design of materials with catalytic activity to transform biomass and waste into biofuel and/or value-added products.

Green Chemistry, sustainable chemistry, circular economy.