Professor Ana Soares

IWA Fellow

Professor of Biotechnology Engineering

Cranfield Water Science Institute

Contact Professor Ana Soares

Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758121
Email: a.soares@cranfield.ac.uk
Twitter: @Soares_UK
LinkedIn

Areas of expertise

Energy and the Environment
Systems Engineering
Water Science and Engineering

Background

Professor Ana Soares holds a MEng in Biotechnology Engineering from Algarve University (Portugal) and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Lund University (Sweden) with a project entitled “Biodegradation of the Recalcitrant Endocrine Disruptor Nonylphenol”. Her PhD formed part of national research program COLDREM (Soil Remediation in Cold Climate) and was supported by MISTRA (Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

Current activities

Dr Ana Soares is a Professor of Biotechnology Engineering specialised in environmental water protection and resource recovery currently working at Cranfield University in the UK. She holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Lund University, in Sweden and a MEng in Biotechnology Engineering from Algarve University in Portugal.

Her work focuses in municipal as well as industrial wastewater management, proposing innovative and economically feasible solutions to produce high quality effluents and product recovery. Prof Soares research explores the underpinning science required to develop and manage bioreactors employing new biological organisms, cultures or pathways in order to develop or optimise technologies and deliver the circular economy. Her scientific findings have resulted in leading-edge processes and technological innovations that contribute, worldwide, to sustainable solutions for effluent treatment. She is particularly successful in bridging the gap between science and application, working in close collaboration with industrial and institutional stakeholders. Prof Soares is an IWA Fellow, active member of various national and international committees, the editor in chief of the Water and Environment Journal and associate editor for Water Research.

Prof Soares has a track record of winning and delivering research for: research council projects through a NERC CASE Studentship; organisations such as the Environment Agency (EA) and Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and European Union (EU) (COST ACTION WATER2020, Nov 2012) and Horizon 2020. She is the Cranfield PI in EU H2020 SMART-PLANT Project (https://www.smart-plant.eu) nextGen (https://nextgenwater.eu/) and the completed H2020 ENERWATER (http://www.enerwater.eu). Over her 14 years at Cranfield she had the opportunity to deliver projects to industrial clients such as water utilities (Yorkshire Water, Thames Water, Severn Trent, Scottish Water, etc.), petrochemical and chemical industries (Shell, Conoco Philips, Huntsman Chemicals, Nufarm, Tata Steel, etc.) as well as technical suppliers (Warden Biomedia). She has also chaired the 3th IWA Specialized International Conference on Ecotechnologies for Wastewater Treatment (2016) and the 16th IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies (LET2019). Dr Soares is an active member of various national and international committees (e.g.: IWA Resource Recovery Cluster, IChemE UK Research Committee, UK Water Industry Forum).