Paola Gramatica

Paola Gramatica received the degree in Chemistry in Milan in July 1972 (cum laude), since 1994 is working on QSAR (Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships) applied to organic compounds of environmental concern, while her previous interest was on synthesis and structure of natural organic compounds. Contract researcher firstly, researcher since 1981, in 1987 won a Associate Professor position in Organic Chemistry and became Full Professor of Environmental Chemistry in 2005 in Insubria University (Varese). She is the leader of the QSAR Research Unit in Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences (DiSTA), Delegate of the Rector for International Relationships and past-Director of the previous Structural and Functional Biology Department (DBSF). Since 1995, QSAR methods were applied to environmental problems by her Research Group in Insubria: different classes of organic compounds (POPs, PBTs, PAHs, Pesticides, EDs, etc.) have been studied to highlight the relationship between molecular structure and various physico-chemical and analytical properties or biological activities, such as toxicity, biodegradability, persistence, mutagenicity, endocrine disruptor properties, PBT properties, etc. Gramatica is author of more than 150 scientific papers on referred international journals and more than 250 presentations to meetings, mainly in application of QSAR models to environmental pollution topics.The Gramatica leadership in the QSAR world is recognized by the high number of citations of her papers in the international literature (about 6000 citations according to ISI Web of Science/7600 according to Google Scholar). She is author of a software for QSAR model development and validation: QSARINS, which is highly appreciated and used by the QSAR modeling community. Her group has been involved in two previous EU Projects (FP4-PREDICT and FP5-BEAM) on aquatic toxicity of mixtures of chemicals. She has been leader of a Workpackage on QSAR modeling in the recent EU-FP7 Project CADASTER for REACH and in a PRIN project for PBT and ED modelling also for REACH. Since 2001, when the EU-White Paper on the new regulation of chemicals was published (now REACH regulation), PG has worked as QSAR expert for the European Joint Research Centre (Ispra) on validation of QSAR models for regulatory applicability and was a selected member of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Task Force of QSAR Experts for the definition of the famous “OECD principles for QSAR validation for regulation applicability”. PG has many international collaborations (in EU, but also in USA, China and India). She was/is in the Editorial Board of some international journals, as Chemosphere, SAR and QSAR in Environ Res, Molecular Informatics, Sustainable Chemicals and Phramaceuticals, and reviewers of many ISI journals. She is member of various Scientific Societies: SCI , SETAC, MESAEP (Mediterranean Scientific Association of Environmental Protection), Italian Chemometrics Society, Cheminformatics and QSAR Society. She was/is member of the Managing Board of Scientific Societies (Environmental and Cultural Heritage Chemistry Division and Green Chemistry Group of Italian Chemical Society, Italian Branch of SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry).