Esperanza Alvarez Rodriguez

Esperanza Alvarez Rodriguez is a Professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, affiliated with the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry within the Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering. She holds a PhD from the same institution, awarded in 1990 for her work on aluminum forms in Galician soil solutions under supervision by Dra. Rosa María Calvo de Anta. Her research focuses on environmental pollutants, particularly antibiotics and heavy metals in soils and agricultural systems, leveraging natural bioadsorbents like pine bark, mussel shells, and clays to mitigate contamination. She is part of the Strategic Grouping in Sustainable Management and Production of Bioresources (BioReDes) and leads the UXAFORES group, addressing sustainable environmental and forest management.

Her work emphasizes understanding antibiotic adsorption mechanisms, soil microbial community responses to contaminants, and developing low-cost remediation strategies using by-products from forestry and agro-food industries. Key contributions include studies on ionophore antibiotics (e.g., monensin, salinomycin), heavy metal interactions in mine-impacted soils, and the environmental fate of veterinary drugs. She has also explored the role of soil pH in antibiotic retention and the potential of modified clays for pollutant sequestration.

Her research spans interdisciplinary topics, including photodegradation of pharmaceuticals, microbial tolerance to pollutants, and regional contamination patterns in Galicia. She collaborates widely on environmental risk assessments and policy-relevant solutions for emerging contaminants, contributing to both fundamental and applied aspects of soil chemistry and environmental engineering.