Biography

Dr. Alicia Sommer has worked mainly with the design and synthesis of porous materials as catalysts and especially for the adsorption of polluting compounds such as herbicides, radioactive materials and carbon dioxide (CO2). She studied Chemical Engineering, a master’s degree and a doctorate at the Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla in Mexico. Her master’s and doctoral thesis work was worthy of the highest award that the university gives “CUM LAUDE.” She did her doctorate from 2009 to 2013 in collaboration with the Charles Gerdhart Institute in the MACS team of Montpellier France, and BUAP in the Faculty of Chemical Sciences, Mexico under the tutelage of Dr. Geolar Fetter, obtaining the double degree (in France and in Mexico). Her thesis work was related to the adsorption of chlorophyll-a and chlorophyllin in hydrotalcites. Dr. Sommer worked in teaching Chemical Engineering courses in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering at BUAP. She also worked as a postdoc from 2013 to 2015 at the Institut de Chimie Séparative de Marcoule France on the synthesis of silica compounds for the adsorption of radioactive cesium. Dr. Sommer was a member of the National System of Researchers in Mexico as a candidate from 2015 to 2017 and obtained the French qualification to be Research Professor in area 31): Theoretical, Physical and Analytical Chemistry and in area 33): Materials Chemistry. She is currently working at Yachay Tech University in the School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering as a professor and researcher.

She is working on different research projects that involve: the manufacture of a portable equipment for the condensation of water from humid air (Water Y project). Obtaining lignin from biomass, using rosewoods and sugar cane as sources (collaboration with Dra Floralba López) to give added value to the agro-industrial waste of Ecuador. Obtaining activated carbon from agro-industrial waste from the manufacture of avocado oil.

Encapsulation of photosynthetic materials in silica monoliths for CO2 adsorption (collaboration with Yachay Tech members Dr Thibault Terencio and Dr. Si Amar and international collaboration with Mexico, Canada and France) using waste from lawn pruning and excess of algae that grow in the lagoons of the Imbabura region as photosynthetic material to later obtain hybrid materials used in the decontamination of air and water.

Obtaining monolithic materials with hierarchical porosity from industrial waste or industrial wastewater to later be used as adsorbents, catalysts and / or bactericidal agents.