Lídia Cunha (7216-840C-0C18)

Curriculum Vitae

Lídia Cunha

Lídia Cunha holds a MsC in Chemical Engineering (FEUP, 2016). Her master dissertation focused on the development of gold nanoparticles-based drug delivery systems for cancer treatment (thesis title: Functionalized gold nanoparticles as a versatile vehicle to delivery anticancer drugs), at LEPABE in FEUP. In 2016/ 2017, Lídia co-founded two startups (Toca do granel; Biograma) focused on the food organic area. Additionally, she worked as a consultant (since 2018) in an international laboratory (NEOTRON). Since 2021, her motivation has been directed towards the research field, where she has been involved in nanotechnology and hydrometallurgy projects. In 2021, Lídia studied the design of nanocarriers based on gold nanoparticles for the treatment of chronic skin diseases. In 2022, she published in an international scientific journal with high impact factor and 1st quartile – Pharmaceutics. The findings showed that gold nanoparticles can be employed as a carrier to boost the antioxidant activity of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in cancer tissues in pancreatic cancer cells. Since 2022, Lídia has been actively engaged in the hydrometallurgy field as a researcher at CERENA, a laboratory with an excellent grade, allocated to two projects. Lídia was involved in Cavali project, where she studied lithium sorption by ion exchange. The developed work focuses on lithium production for electric vehicles intended to be implemented in Portugal. Currently, she is a researcher in the INN4MIN project, studying the extraction of precious and semi-precious metals from printed circuit boards to reduce their environmental impacts and improve mineral processing efficiency while promoting best practices in the industry. Environmental conservation and entrepreneurship are the main areas in which Lídia is more attracted and fulfilled. She felt inspired to transition from the nanotechnology area to hydrometallurgy, as it aligns more closely with her passion for addressing environmental challenges and finding innovative solutions to mitigate adverse impacts on human health while safeguarding essential metal resources. This over-all professional experience has given her her important data analysis and technical skills at an industrial market level. Lídia is highly motivated to pursue further education as a doctoral researcher, which might provide an opportunity to apply her PhD project in the B|AGAIN, a new company of DST group

Read full resume ↓

Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Lídia Cunha

Citation names

Cunha, Lídia
Cunha, L.

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 7216-840C-0C18

Email addresses

up201406702@edu.fe.up.pt (Professional)

Telephones

Mobile phone

917535157 (Professional)

Addresses

Rua Santa Luzia, 4250-415, Porto, Porto, Portugal (Personal)

Knowledge fields

Engineering and Technology - Environmental Engineering
Engineering and Technology - Environmental Engineering - Mining and Mineral Processing
Engineering and Technology - Chemical Engineering
Engineering and Technology - Materials Engineering - Materials Engineering
Engineering and Technology - Nano-technology - Nano-materials
Social Sciences - Economics and Business - Industrial Relations

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
English	Advanced (C1)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Advanced (C1)	Upper intermediate (B2)
French	Intermediate (B1)	Intermediate (B1)	Beginner (A1)	Intermediate (B1)	Beginner (A1)
Portuguese (Mother tongue)
Spanish; Castilian	Intermediate (B1)	Beginner (A1)	Beginner (A1)	Elementary (A2)	Elementary (A2)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2019/10/01 - 2020/10/19 Concluded	DEROSE METHOD (Diploma de especialização) Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração de Coimbra, Portugal
2011/09/11 - 2016/09/16 Concluded	Chemical Engineering (Mestrado integrado) Major in Biotechnology Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal "Functionalized gold nanoparticles as a versatile vehicle to delivery anticancer drugs" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	14

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2021/09/01 - Current	Researcher (Research)	Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal

Others

	Category Host institution	Employer
2018/03/06 - 2021/08/31	R&D Consultant	NEOTRON (Calseg), Portugal

2017/09/01 - 2018/02/15	CO-Founder and CEO	Biograma, Portugal

2016/09/20 - 2017/12/05	Co-Founder and CEO	Toca do Granel, Portugal

Projects

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2023/07/01 - 2024/12/30	Development of innovative and sustainable approaches applied to the recovery of gold and critical elements from ores and spent printed circuit boards (INN4MIN project) ERA-MIN3/0004/2021 Researcher Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente, Portugal	Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. through national funds under the ERA-MIN3 network and the ERA-NET Cofund in raw materials Ongoing
2022/12/01 - 2023/06/30	Cavali project UIDB/04028/2020 Researcher Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal	European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement Concluded

Other

	Designation	Funders
2021/09/01 - 2022/11/30	Topical formulations with functionalized gold nanoparticles for chronic skin diseases . Researcher

Outputs

Publications

Conference paper	Cunha, Lídia; Monteiro, Joana; Azevedo, Andreia; Futuro, Aurora; Soeiro, José; Sousa, Rui. Corresponding author: Cunha, Lídia. "Development of innovative and sustainable methodologies applied to the recovery of copper in integrated circuit boards". Paper presented in 10th World Congress on Mechanical, Chemical, and Material Engineering (MCM 2024), Barcelona, 2024. Published
Conference poster	Cunha, Lídia; Joana Sofia Sousa Monteiro; Andreia Azevedo; Aurora Magalhães Futuro da Silva; José Manuel Soutelo Soeiro Carvalho; Rui Jorge Coelho de Sousa. "Development of innovative and sustainable methodologies applied to the recovery of copper in integrated circuit boards". Paper presented in Ciência 2024, 2024.
Journal article	Cunha, Lídia; Monteiro, Joana; Futuro, Aurora; Regufe, Maria João; Soeiro, José; Sousa, Rui. "Recycling PCBs for nanoparticles production with potential applications in cosmetics, cement manufacturing, and CO2 capture". Waste Management 191 (2025): 308-323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2024.11.018. 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.11.018 Cunha, Lídia; Joana Monteiro; Aurora Magalhães Futuro da Silva; António Manuel Antunes Fiúza. Corresponding author: Cunha, Lídia. "Lithium sorption by ion exchange". Minerals Engineering (2024): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892687524002152?via%3Dihub. Published Cunha, L.; Coelho, S.C; Pereira, M.d.C; Coelho, M.A.N. Corresponding author: Coelho, S.C. "Nanocarriers Based on Gold Nanoparticles for Epigallocatechin Gallate Delivery in Cancer Cells". Pharmaceutics 14 491 (2022): https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14030491. Published
Report	Cunha, Lídia; Monteiro, Joana; Fiúza, António; Aurora Magalhães Futuro da Silva. Corresponding author: Fiúza, António. 2023. Projeto Cavali - Atividade 4 - Metalurgia.
Thesis / Dissertation	Cunha, Lídia. "Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles as a Versatile Vehicle to Delivery Anticancer Drugs". Master, Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, 2016. https://hdl.handle.net/10216/93490.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2024/11/18	Development of innovative and sustainable methodologies applied to the recovery of gold and critical elements in printed circuit	5th International Conference on Environmental Science and Applications Avestia (Lisbon, Portugal)
2024/08/22	Development of innovative and sustainable methodologies applied to the recovery of copper in integrated circuit boards	10th World Congress on Mechanical, Chemical, and Material Engineering (MCM 2024) Mining and Metallurgical Engineering (Barcelona, Spain)
2023/06/15	Lithium sorption by ion exchange	Doctoral Congress in Engineering 2023: Symposium on Mining Engineering and Geo-Resources Faculty of Engineering - University of Porto (Porto, Portugal)
2023/06/15	Alternative Reagents for Lithium Extraction from Lepidolite Ore: A Preliminary Fractional Factorial Design Study	Doctoral Congress in Engineering 2023: Symposium on Mining Engineering and Geo-Resources Faculty of Engineering - University of Porto (Porto, Portugal)

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2022/04/21 - 2022/04/24	Mostra Universidade do Porto – Member of the organization Exhibition	Mostra Universidade do Porto Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal

Consulting

	Activity description	Institution / Organization
2021/10/01 - Current	I am the marketing director of DeROSE Culture school. I oversee the planning and coordination of events, speeches and social networks.	DeROSE Culture, Portugal
2022/03/01 - 2022/12/03	I review articles of DeROSE Method to magazines such as Executive Digest.
2020/10/01 - 2022/10	Provide a personal program to the development a more present and meaningful life through community, technology and the development of human skills.	DeROSE Culture, Portugal

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2021/09/15 - 2021/12/15	Introduction to Nanotechnology	Master in Chemical Engineering (Mestrado)	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Engenharia, Portugal

Interview (newspaper / magazine)

	Activity description	Newspaper / Forum
2017/12/06	Presentation of the business idea of Toca do Granel.	TimeOut
2017/10/02	Presentation of the business idea of Toca do Granel.	Evasões

Interview (tv / radio show)

	Program	Topic
2017/04/11 - 2017/04/11	Presentation of the business idea in three programs: "Olá Maria"; "Vida Macro"; "RTV".	Toca do Granel

Distinctions

Award

2024

Best Paper Award at the 10th World Congress on Mechanical, Chemical, and Material Engineering (MCM 2024) for the paper entitled: "Development of innovative and sustainable methodologies applied to the recovery of copper in integrated circuit boards"

International Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, Canada