Fábio Bernardo

Fábio Bernardo is graduated in Environmental Engineering (Integrated Master in Environmental Engineering - MIEA ♻️💦🌿), by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) since 2016. He carried out his master's thesis at Águas do Porto E.M., evaluating the eco-efficiency of the urban water cycle management system, leading to a more efficient and economic business while at the same time reducing resource use and environmental impact, to achieve sustainable development. In 2017, he completed the Master in Occupational Safety and Hygiene Engineering (MESHO - 👷⚠️🚧), also at FEUP, where he acquired new knowledge in the areas of ergonomics, psychosociology, occupational hygiene and safety. His dissertation consisted of the evaluation of muscle fatigue in the manual handling of loads, through motion analysis and accelerometers. The repetition of movements, efforts and poor body posture while working have become a major cause of injuries in the industries, bringing consequences for the worker (work-related musculoskeletal disorders and psychological impacts) as well as for organizations, due to loss of production, absenteeism or compensations. In 2017 he also joined the Laboratory of Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE), where he was a research fellow for 8 months, in the SaltQuanti project (Ref: NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-017901). This was a collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Science of the University of Porto (FCNAUP) and Evoleo Technologies (a Portuguese SME investing in skills related to the design of critical and highly complex electronic systems). This project aimed to demonstrate, in a real work environment, the application of a portable and easy-to-use device, capable of analyzing the amount of salt (sodium) in food matrices, based on direct potentiometry through Ion Selective Electrode (ISE). Also in the food field, he the opportunity to contribute to a book chapter that highlighted the most recent research on the main trace compounds with toxicological interference for wine consumers: methanol, ethyl carbamate, biogenic amines, nitrosamines and ochratoxin A. This work arose as a result of the development of new agricultural practices and technological innovations, as well as the increasing demands on quality control (food safety), namely the presence of methyl alcohol and some trace compounds, most of them residues of phytosanitary products applied to vine. In 2018, he obtained a PhD grant (Ref: PD / BD / 137758/2018) from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and in 2022, he completed the Doctoral Program in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PDEQB - 🎓🔬📜). His research was mainly focused on the development, optimization (e.g. using design of experiments) and validation of analytical methods for the detection of emerging organic contaminants (e.g. volatile methylsiloxanes) in trace levels in the environment. It also focused on the development of environmental risk assessment studies (exposure assessment, effects assessment and risk characterization). In 2022, he started working as a postdoctoral researcher at ALiCE (Associate Laboratory for Innovation in Chemical Engineering), more specifically at the R&D unit LSRE-LCM (Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering - Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials). First author of 5 publications in international peer-reviewed journals (co-author of another 2), first author of 1 book chapter and first author of 5 oral presentations (co-author of another 2). Author of 5 poster presentations (2 as first author, 3 as co-author) at international meetings/symposia.