Carlota Vijande

Carlota Vijande is a Xunta de Galicia Research Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering within the School of Engineering at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Her research focuses on microbial degradation of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and anaerobic fermentation processes.

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology, University of Oviedo
• Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela

Research Interests:

• Microbial communities involved in microplastic degradation
• Impact of operational conditions on anaerobic fermentation microbiomes
• Environmental engineering applications for sustainable wastewater treatment

Her work bridges microbial ecology with engineering solutions, particularly targeting protein fermentation for volatile fatty acid production and antibiotic resistance dynamics in WWTPs.

Recent Contributions:

• Explored bacterial community shifts under varying fermentation conditions (Microbial Biotechnology, 2024)
• Analyzed unresolved challenges in microplastic-antibiotic resistance interactions (Book Chapter, 2024)

Labs/Teams: Part of interdisciplinary teams at the University of Santiago de Compostela's engineering and environmental research groups.