MDPI 2025 International Women in Engineering Day Webinar
Legacy Building Through Inclusive Leadership
Meet Our Speakers
Prof. Dr. Sabina Merlo
University of Pavia, Italy;
Sabina Merlo was born in Pavia, Italy, in 1962 and received the degree in electronic engineering from the University of Pavia, Pavia, in 1987. She received a Rotary Foundation Graduate Scholarship to study at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, and received the M.S.E. degree in bioengineering in 1989 from the same university. She received a Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Pavia in 1991. She became an Assistant Professor in 1993, an Associate Professor in 2001, and a Full Professor in 2018 in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering of the University of Pavia. Her main research interests include optical measurements on micromachined and microfluidic devices, optical interferometry, chaos in lasers, fiber-optic passive components and sensors, and optical biosensors. She holds four patents and is the coauthor of more than 200 publications in journals, books, and conference proceedings. She is an Associate Editor of MDPI Sensors and MDPI Micromachines. Dr. Merlo is a Member of AEIT, GMEE, and a Senior Member of the IEEE I&M Society and Photonics Society. Sciprofile: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/197857
Dr. Fabiola Pineda
Universidad Mayor, Chile;
Dr. Fabiola Pineda is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Applied Nanotechnology, Universidad Mayor (Chile). She specializes in high-temperature corrosion, particularly in molten salt environments pertinent to concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. Her research employs electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and advanced surface characterization techniques to elucidate corrosion mechanisms and develop effective mitigation strategies.
Her recent work includes evaluating the corrosion resistance of alumina-forming alloys in lithium nitrate-containing molten salts and investigating the electrochemical behavior of materials in ternary molten salt mixtures for solar thermal applications. She also explores the use of MXene-based coatings and nanofluids to enhance thermal stability and corrosion resistance in extreme environments.
Dr. Camélia Ghimbeu
Institute of Materials Science in Mulhouse, France;
Dr. Camélia Matei Ghimbeu is Research Director at the Institute of Materials Science in Mulhouse (IS2M), CNRS, France. She received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Metz, France, and TU Delft, The Netherlands, and her Habilitation in 2015 from the University of Haute Alsace, France. She was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2017, the Solid-State Chemistry Division Prize (French Chemistry Society) in 2018, and the Guy Ourisson Prize (Gutenberg Cercle) in 2019 for her research on the design of carbon-based materials with controlled properties for energy storage and environmental applications. Author of around 130 articles and 170 communications, she leads the "Carbon and Hybrid Materials" group at IS2M, is in charge of the Carbon Materials Axis of the FRMNGE and is a member of the French Electrochemical Energy Storage Network (RS2E).
Dr. Maria Graça Rasteiro
University of Coimbra, Portugal;
Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Coimbra. PhD and Habilitation in Chemical Engineering in the area of Particle Technology. Introduced the field of Particle Technology in Engineering in Portugal, after an MSc and a PhD in the field. First PhD in Chemical Engineering by the University of Coimbra, supervised by Prof Brian Scarlett, one of the “fathers” of this field. Orcid - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6084-4553. Editor in several journals in the area of Chemical Engineering.
Prof. Dr. Yuliya Semenova
Technological University Dublin, Ireland;
Yuliya Semenova received her Master's in Electronic Engineering degree from the National University “Lviv Polytechnic” in Ukraine in 1992 and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1999. She is a Professor in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Technological University Dublin, where she has been since 2001, and Director of the Photonics Research Centre since 2019. She has over 350 publications in the field of photonics, with more than 7,500 citations of her work. She has given numerous invited talks and tutorials and supervised 16 PhD graduates to completion. She is an Associate Editor of several journals in her field, including IET Electronics Letters, Journal of Lightwave Technology, and Sensors. Her current research interests span both photonics and applications of photonic devices in engineering, with a focus on fiber optics. Much of her work to date has focused on improving the design and performance of optical fiber sensors, with applications ranging from macro- to nanoscales. Some of the specific areas of her interests are whispering gallery mode effects in microfiber resonators, plasmonic structures, and photonic (liquid) crystal fiber sensors.
Dr. Tatiana Ferreira
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Tatiana Ferreira is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), currently on leave and based in Vancouver, where she works as Director of Innovation at SYNTH BIOTECH. She holds a Master’s and PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Process Engineering and has over 15 years of experience in bioprocess development, optimization, and scale-up. Her research focuses on waste and biomass valorization, industrial biotechnology, and biorefinery development, with a special emphasis on converting renewable feedstocks into value-added bioproducts such as 2,3-butanediol, 1,3-propanediol, ethanol, butanol, organic acids, and enzymes.
Sponsors and Partners
Organizer
MDPI 2025 International Women in Engineering Day Webinar:
Legacy Building through Inclusive Leadership
International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), observed annually on 23 June, is a global initiative that celebrates the outstanding achievements of women in engineering while inspiring more young women to pursue engineering careers. Aligned with the 2025 theme, "Together We Engineer" and Goal 5 of the SDG Publishers Compact: Gender Equality, MDPI emphasizes the power of collective action to break down gender barriers and foster a more inclusive engineering culture.
Join us in celebrating International Women in Engineering Day and supporting initiatives that empower women in STEM.
Date: 23 June 2025
Time: 4:00 p.m. CEST | 10:00 a.m. EDT| 10:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 835 3354 6710
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Today's webinar hosted three engaging presentations, two of them given by female professors who have been working in their fields for decades and one from a female scientist in the middle of her career. Overall, there were six researchers at the round table. Although they expressed different perspectives, they shared similar insights about the engineering discipline. All answers to the questions posed demonstrated the enthusiasm and expertise of the speakers in their research, as well as their determination in pursuing their career paths in engineering, despite the commonly recognized difficulties they have had to face over the years.
"Advancements in Biosurfactants: Production, Characterization and Multifaceted Applications"
Guest Editors: Dr. Tatiana Felix Ferreira and Dr. Priscilla Amaral
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 July 2025
"Advances in Corrosion and Anticorrosion of Materials in Thermal Energy Storage Systems"
Guest Editor: Dr. Fabiola Pineda
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025
"Feature Papers in Physical Sensors 2025"
Guest Editors: Dr. Guillermo Villanueva, Prof. Dr. Sabina Merlo, Prof. Dr. Nunzio Cennamo, Prof. Dr. Aldo Minardo and Dr. Cosimo Trono
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025
"Feature Papers in Optical Sensors 2025"
Guest Editors: Prof. Dr. Yuliya Semenova and Dr. Gabriele Bolognini
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025