Maria Francisca Portilha Cunha graduated in Bioengineering - Biological Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 2019, with the final grade of 17 (out of 20). As a master's student, she enrolled in the international mobility Erasmus+ program, spending a semester at Ghent University. She also worked as a monitor at the Universidade Júnior program and took a business setting internship in Sociedade dos Vinhos Borges. Her MSc Dissertation (grade 19/20), in the area of Food Science and Technology, allowed her to come in contact with a researcher day-to-day life, motivating her to follow a career in academia. In 2020, she was integrated in the Environmental Sciences and Technologies group of Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy (LEPABE), as a researcher in project CytoStraTech - Cost-effective approaches for mitigation of risky cytostatics in Portuguese waters. Her current work on a topic with great importance in terms of public health further contributed to her decision to undertake a doctoral program in the areas of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. She has already published, as first author, 5 peer-reviewed articles in SCI journals of very high impact factor, which highlights the excellence of the work that has been developed. Moreover, she has attended several scientific events, having presented three oral communications and two poster communications at national and international conferences.