Gerusa Gimenez Leal

Gerusa Gimenez Leal serves as a University Professor in the Department of Organization, Business Management and Product Design at the University of Girona, Spain. With continuous full-time faculty service since September 1997, she maintains active research and teaching roles in industrial engineering disciplines while contributing to the Advanced Research Group on Business Dynamics and Impact of New Technologies on Organizations (GRADIENT).

Education:

• PhD in Industrial Engineering, University of Girona, Spain (2001)
• B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain (1996)

Research Focus: Her work centers on Circular Economy adoption in manufacturing, particularly analyzing EMAS-registered SMEs in Spain and Germany through longitudinal studies. In Management Systems, she investigates intersections of Quality, Environmental Management, and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), notably how environmental management systems mediate corporate sustainability. Her Operations Management research explores lean tools for Industry 4.0 adoption and supply chain optimization, with empirical studies on Spanish manufacturing firms.

Publication Trends: Recent output (2022-2025) reveals dual trajectories: (1) Circular economy implementation metrics in European manufacturing, and (2) Educational innovation through Project-Based Learning. Her 2024-2025 publications demonstrate increasing integration of sustainability principles into OSH education and gamified management teaching methods, while maintaining empirical analysis of lean production systems.

Scientific Awards: No awards were documented in the source materials.

Academic Contributions: She has pioneered Project-Based Learning implementation at the University of Girona through practical guides and community-building initiatives like EXPERIA. Her teaching portfolio includes Operations Management, Logistics, Quality Management, and Business Administration courses, informed by prior industry experience as Quality Manager at Indústrias Cerámicas Brancós, SA.

Research Infrastructure: She operates within two key units: the GRADIENT research group focusing on business dynamics, and the Research Group in Product, Process and Production Engineering (GREP), enabling cross-disciplinary analysis of industrial transformation.