Winner. Scientist of the Year 2022

Márcia Walquíria de Carvalho Dezotti

Academic title, degree: Professor, Doctor of Science in Chemistry
Fields of science: Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Research interest: Water and wastewater treatment
Career Development: Senior
Organization: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Position: Professor
City: Rio de Janeiro
Country: Brazil

Prof. Dezotti obtained her BSc in Chemistry in 1985 and her MSc and DSc in Chemistry (1986 and 1992), all of them at UNICAMP (University of Campinas/Brazil). Her DSc thesis was decisive in her academic career. She decided to work in the environmental research area, more specifically with the treatment of domestic and recalcitrant industrial effluents, and later she included water treatment in her research topics. It should be noted that at that time (the 1990s), these areas of research were not yet a “fever” in the academic world, but Prof. Dezotti had no doubt that she would have much to contribute and did so. Since then, she has been conducting research with a vast range of processes for the treatment of water and effluents, such as advanced oxidative processes, primary effluent treatment, and biological processes (including advanced biological processes). She brought her experience from the field of chemistry to the sciences of chemical engineering, in which she has been working since 1995.

Prof. Dezotti is the Coordinator of the Chemical Engineering area at FAPERJ (Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro). She was the President of the Faculty Evaluation Committee of COPPE/UFRJ-Brazil (2013-2019) and the Head of the Chemical Engineering Program COPPE-UFRJ-Brazil (2013-2015). Prof. Dezotti is the Coordinator of the Water Pollution Control Lab/COPPE/UFRJ, and she is often invited to provide her opinion as an expert on environmental problems related to water and effluents in Brazil.

Prof. Dezotti started a few years ago to become very involved with the emotional/social impacts that female students who are doing their theses (MSc and DSc) in Engineering (COPPE) suffer and that impair their full scientific development. So, she helped to structure and is a Founding Member of the COPPE Women Support Group. This group aims to aid women in their academic/scientific careers. One of the actions is helping students and teachers who have difficulties in carrying out their activities. Additionally, she is a Co-founder of the Brazilian Association of Advanced Oxidative Processes.

Prof. Dezotti was the supervisor of 41 DSc and 51 MSc theses and 11 post-doc.

She has organized several national and international symposia and conferences. The total number of publications during her career is 124 papers (http://lattes.cnpq.br/), in SCOPUS: 121 papers with 5381 citations and h-index 36 (October 9, 2021) AU-ID ("Dezotti, M." 6602991445), in Google Scholar: 8927 citations, h-index 43 and i10 – index 96 (October 9, 2021) (https://scholar.google.com/). She is undoubtedly among the most cited researchers in engineering in Brazil.

Prof. Dezotti has published three books, two national and one international. The first of these, Process and Techniques for the Environmental Control of Liquid Effluents, ed. E-papers, p.360, 2008, is adopted as a textbook in the undergraduate Chemical and Environmental Engineering courses in several Brazilian universities, with more than 1000 copies sold.

The second book, Advanced Biological Processes for Effluent Treatment and Molecular Biology Techniques for the Study of Microbial Diversity, ed. Interciência, p. 357, 2011, is adopted in Brazilian graduate courses with great success and is a reference for several Brazilian research groups.

The third book was published by Springer, Advanced Biological Processes for Wastewater Treatment – Emerging, Consolidated Technologies and Introduction to Molecular Techniques, p. 360, 2017. An online publication also became available on September 20, 2017, and since then, there have been a total of 7801 chapter downloads for this eBook on SpringerLink. The authors received the following message from the publisher: “We are also delighted to tell you that your book was among the top 50% most downloaded eBooks in its respective eBook Collection in 2019.”

During her academic career, Professor Márcia Dezotti received more than 25 awards, among which the COPPE Giulio Massarani Award - Academic Merit, COPPE/UFRJ in 2010, which was awarded in recognition of her scientific production of the highest level. Other highlights are the Scientist of Our State, FAPERJ awards (in 2006, 2009, and 2015), which is awarded to the best researchers in the State of Rio de Janeiro/Brazil.

Prof. Dr. Márcia Dezotti is a reference in Brazil and internationally. She introduced relevant research topics for Brazil, such as emerging pollutants and advanced oxidative processes (she innovated in the identification of the organic sub-products and their association with biological processes), in addition to advanced biological processes.

She has published in the best international journals and has an outstanding performance in the training of MSc and DSc students. Her research work is appreciated and respected internationally.

Prof. Dezotti has published three books, which are adopted as a reference in Brazilian universities. One of them was published internationally and had great repercussion in the academic world. She published more than 100 papers and is one of the most cited researchers in Brazil in the area of chemical engineering.

She conducted several projects in the environmental area (water and effluents treatment) with oil, petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical companies, such as PETROBRAS, BAYER, BRASKEM, PETROFLEX (now ARLANXEO), Rio Polímeros (now BRASKEM), TANAC, Manguinhos oil refinery, among others.

She led many other projects with Brazilian research agencies (FAPERJ, CNPq, CAPES) and foreign universities (Spain, Portugal, France, USA, and Norway, among others).

Among achievements of Prof. Dr. Dezotti, it is essential to highlight the organization of the VI Meeting on Oxidative Processes (EPOA) that gave rise, under her coordination, to the International Congress on the same theme (CIPOA – Iberoamerican Conference on Advanced Oxidation Processes) that took place in 2011 in Brazil. It is important to note that CIPOA is a success and will already have its 5th edition in Peru in 2022.

Prof. Dezotti is a member of the following professional societies: International Water Association (IWA), International Ozone Association (IOA), Brazilian Association of Chemical Engineering (ABEQ).

In 2020, Prof. Dr. Márcia Dezotti was elected a Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in recognition of her scientific production and its impact in Brazil.

In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS).