Meet Laura Palacio, a scientist in the area of applied physics
Science has always been a passion for Laura Palacio. Since her school years, she was deeply drawn to physics. Her motivation from her high school teacher sparked her great interest in this field, which led her to study physics at university. Later, she obtained a collaboration scholarship and started working in the old thermodynamics department of the University of Valladolid, where she specialized in the area of membranes.
Currently, she is part of a research group specialized in surfaces and porous materials (SMAP). Her first steps in research focused on membrane characterization techniques, since the research group has a wide variety of techniques to study membranes. Over time, they broadened their focus to separation processes, initially applied to liquids and later to gases. Now, they even manufacture their own membranes for gas separation, thanks to a collaboration with the Associated Unit of the CSIC.
More specifically, Laura is dedicated to research in funded projects and supervision of doctoral thesis. On one hand, she is working on a research on the implementation of the forward osmosis technique to treat wastewater. Simultaneously, it carries out measurements and control of emerging pollutants, such as caffeine and antibiotics, present in the water in low concentrations, but which can be harmful to the flora and fauna of the rivers.
Other ongoing research involves the use of membranes to recover ammonia from slurry or gallinaceous waste. The objective is to reduce or even avoid the polluting impact of this product, while seeking to obtain sustainable by-products, such as fertilizers. Another great bet of the team to which she belongs is the separation of gases. Polymers are currently being synthesized to make polymeric or mixed matrix membranes, highly competitive for CO2/CH4 separation, or with interesting properties for H2 purification. The next step will be scaling to larger surfaces
These and other investigations in which Laura and her team work are applied in various sectors such as the food industry (juices, milk, oenology, etc.), the petrochemical industry (gas separation) and health (hemodialysis, oxygenation, etc. ). In adition these have a strong environmental implication and therefore a great social impact. By seeking more selective materials for separations, such as CO2/CH4, they can help reduce greenhouse gases that contribute so much to climate change. Likewise, research on wastewater treatment and the removal of pollutants also generates a significant impact on the problem of drought and water scarcity.
Definitely, Laura Palacio is passionate about what she does, even though she recognizes that her work involves a lot of bureaucratic procedures that consume a lot of useful time, from having to justify very minimal things, to constantly having to make project requests in order to obtain financing. In any case, she assures that she works in the laboratory with great enthusiasm thinking that “what I do, at some point someone will be able to use it for the benefit of society.” She advises to those pursuing a career in science to enjoy what they are doing and do it with passion, although job stability in this field can be slow and you probably won’t get rich doing it, she finds that is very rewarding and well worth.
