Dr. M. Isabel Guijarro, Associated Professor-Contract of the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the Complutense University of Madrid. She has been a lecturer in the Department since 1999. From 1989 to 1996 she first worked on her M.Sc. thesis obtaining her diploma in Chemistry (Industrial Chemistry) in 1992 and later on her doctoral thesis on the development and optimisation of a sulphur silicate for the elimination of mercury. Technological aspects of a process for the manufacture, in a semi-pilot plant, of sulphurous materials for the elimination of mercury from gas streams were developed, based on the impregnation by polysulphides and the subsequent drying of national or lightly treated silicates, tending to replace the materials in use more efficiently and at a lower cost. The research was carried out at the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry of the CSIC.
Another line of work was within a BRITE project under the title "Selective catalytic activation of C5 paraffins", focusing its activity on the study of the activity and selectivity of the process, in a continuous fixed bed reactor, with the control of the operation by gas chromatography.
In 1999 he joined the Complutense University of Madrid as assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His research focused on the synthesis and purification of bioproducts, as well as on the valorization of vegetable oils to obtain fine chemical products, mainly from esterification/transesterification reactions with alcohols of different molecular masses. Within these lines, he has been Principal Investigator of the project "Obtaining new biodegradable surfactants from diglycerol with fatty acids" (PR78/02-10978).
The research carried out has so far resulted in 12 scientific publications, 18 contributions to international and national congresses and 3 patents, one of which is being exploited. She has participated in 20 competitive projects and 3 private contracts, being responsible for one of them and has been principal investigator in two projects of Educational Innovation.
She has participated in the organization of courses, Summer Course of the Escorial of the Complutense University in July 2005 and Winter Course of the Complutense University in March 2006.