Helena M.V.M. Soares holds a Ph.D in Chemistry and Habilitation in Environmental Engineering from the Faculty of Sciences
and the Faculty of Engineering, both from the University of Porto, respectively. She is Assistant Professor at the Faculty
of Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP) and Researcher of the LAQV/REQUIMTE-Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry (LAQV)
of the Network of Chemistry and Technology (REQUIMTE). Presently, her research focus mainly on the following topics: (i) URBAN
MINING, by developping innovative, environmental and economical sustainable technological solutions for recovering raw materials
(mainly, strategic and critical metals) from secondary sources in a Circular perspective; (ii) BIO-BASED SOLUTIONS for SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE by designing and production of new products. During her research career, she has authored and co-authored 100
articles in peer-reviewed ISI journals (about 3200 citations; H-index of 30), 2 European patents, 2 book chapters and presented
> 100 communications in various international conferences. Up to now, she supervised 5 Pós-Doc students, 9 Ph.D students and
15 Master students. Presently, she supervises 4 researchers. She regularly contributes on national (Foundation of Science
and Technology of the Portuguese Government, FCT, and University of Porto) and international (European Commission; ERA-MIN
3, NIFA-USDA, ISF-Israel, NRF-África do Sul, FONDECYT-Chile) evaluation panels. She participated in various national and international
projects and coordinated several national competitive projects (7 funded by FCT). Currently, she leads 1 national competitive
project funded by FCT. She participated in the Scientific Committee of several international conferences (CEST 2023; CEST
2021, CEST 2019 and ICEST 2008) and the Management Committee of the COST Action ES1407. To data, 9 Scientific Innovation Award
have been awarded to her by FEUP and, in 2022, she received the first prize of the iUP25k - The Business Ideas Competition
of the University of Porto. Over the years, she has intervened in the scientific and professional communities and her work
has been featured in various media.