Profile

Mara G. Freire graduated in Chemistry in 2003, receiving the “Best Chemistry Student Award” from Dow Portugal, and in 2007 she completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering, branch of Bioengineering, by the University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal. Freire carried out post-doctoral activities at the New University of Lisbon, and in 2013, she returned to the UA.  Currently, Freire is a Coordinating Researcher and Deputy Chair of the Scientific Council of the UA and the Vice-Director of CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials. She is member of the European Academy of Sciences and of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. In addition to being member of several journal editorial boards, Freire is a Subject Chair, responsible for the fields of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Material Sciences, of the Content Selection Advisory Board (CSAB) from Scopus.
Freire published +350 papers in peer reviewed journals, +30 book chapters and two books, and has +20,000 citations and h-index of 80. She coordinated/participated in +25 R&D projects, among which two European Research Council (ERC) grants and 2 PathFinder projects from the European Innovation Council (EIC). She has filled +15 national/international patents, has licensed 4 patents, and is the co-founder of the RYAPURTECH spin-off.
In addition to other awards and recognitions, Freire received the ECTP-NETZSCH Young Scientist Award in 2014, was recognized as one of the 100 women in Chemistry by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2018, was awarded with the “Vicente de Seabra Medal” in 2018, received the Best Researcher Award from the University of Aveiro in 2021, received the award “Professor Almiro e Castro” in 2023, and was a Women TechEU awardee in 2024.
Up to date, Freire has completed the supervision of 4 junior researchers, 20 post-doctoral researchers and 25 PhD students.