Professor Sandra Einloft

Sandra Einloft holds a PhD in Materials Engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and from the French Institute of Petroleum. She completed postdoctoral research at UFRGS and at Universidade Pierre et Marie Curie (France). She has a MSc from UFRGS and a BA in Chemistry from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria.

Her research focuses on solutions for the mitigation of climate change focused on the separation and use of CO2. Not only is CO2 the main greenhouse gas but is also a molecule that can be used to produce chemical products with high added value, instead of petroleum derivatives. In this sense, Sandra develops new materials for capturing CO2 from industrial gas streams and from natural gas. She also studies catalytic systems to transform CO2 into products, such as linear and cyclic carbonates.

She has loved Mathematics and Organic Chemistry since she was in High School. As she was working on her degree in Chemistry, she wanted to become a scientist. During her career as a researcher, she has always sought to develop processes that are less aggressive to the environment. And since 2007, she has been working to mitigate greenhouse gases, mainly CO2.

In 2014, she worked at Paul Sabatier University as a guest professor/researcher. In 2015, she won the Prêmio Inventor CENPES/Petrobrás and in 2018 made it to the finals of Prêmio ANP de Inovação Tecnológica – Category I. Sandra advises undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She also served as director of the School of Chemistry of PUCRS from 2004-2017. Since 2018, she has served as Dean of the School of Technology of PUCRS.

Sandra believes that people who are different in race, gender and other dimensions bring different perspectives to deal with life demands, as they have lived unique experiences. “If the ratio men/women were balanced in STEM areas, we would have more creative teams, and would develop solutions that are better suited to the demands of society, whether in academia or in companies. I see gender equality as a progress for all”.