Ana V. Girão

A.V. Girão is currently a Researcher at the Materials and Ceramic Engineering Department – CICECO-University of Aveiro (Portugal). She graduated in Chemistry by FCUL-University of Lisbon (2001) and got her PhD in Civil Engineering (2007) at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Leeds (U.K.), under the theme The Nanostructure and Degradation of C-S-H in Portland and Blended Cements. She then strengthened her research knowledge and scientific production at the University of Aveiro (UA) over the following years as a post-doc researcher (2008-2019). She has authored/co-authored over 40 SCI papers in major multidisciplinary international peer-review journals and 4 book chapters (Hirsch index h of 15 for 38 papers - WOS-Feb/2022); with various invited oral communications and over 25 communications at international/national conferences. She is also the first author of a patent concerning the design and process of an electrolytic device for water treatment (PT116737, registered 20201000045851-116737W). A.V. Girão has also supervised/co-supervised 2 MSc dissertations, BSc project works tied to district industry, and has been directly involved in more than 5 research projects, mainly in close collaboration with industry. A.V. Girão has continued teaching experience in Materials Characterization Techniques (PhD and MSc Programs-UA, Portugal), and Demonstrating Labs (BSc Program-ULeeds, UK). Her main current scientific interests are focused on the application of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of diamond and carbon-based nanostructured thin films for environmental sensing/remediation and green hydrogen generation. She is also proficient in Transmission/Scanning Electron Microscopy techniques and Atomic Force Microscopy characterization of functional micro/nanostructured materials with effective technological advances. A.V. Girão is an ACS author/reviewer/member; member of IOM(UK), Portuguese Microscopy and Chemistry Societies, and was a MC Member COST Action MP1306-Modern Tools for Spectroscopy on Advanced Materials: European Modelling Platform (2014-2018). Technical Skills TRANSMISSION/SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (T/S EM) techniques applied to full characterization of nanostructured materials whose physico-chemical properties contribute to an effective technological advance; correlation studies of final chemical properties, structural and morphological of nanomaterials; studies of structural dynamics of nanomaterials at real time; effective implementation of top-down techniques and bottom-up development of assembled nanomaterials; development, improvement and extension of new research methods for nanostructured materials. Highly skilled at operating Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM): Hitachi S4100, SU-70; CamScan Series 4; and Environmental (ESEM) Philips XL30; Nanolithography: Raith Elphy Plus System; TEM/SEM sample preparation from bulk samples to cross-sectioned thin films. Highly skilled at EM imaging and analysis including High-Resolution TEM, Electron Diffraction, EDX, STEM, EELS and assorted processing/simulation software like Digital Micrograph and JEMS. Highly skilled at AFM imaging and data analysis (EFM, NanoIndentation/Scratching; PFM; MFM): Bruker AFM Systems (Veeco Instruments). Highly skilled at operating Spectroscopy equipments: Micro-Raman Horiba Jobin-Yvon LabRAM HR-UV 800 Spectrometer; Brucker RFS100/S FT-Raman Spectrometer; UltraViolet-Visible (UV-Vis) Jasco V560 Spectrophotometer.