Antoni Sánchez

Spain

I completed my doctoral thesis in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UAB between 1995 and 1998 under the supervision of doctors F. Valero and J. Lafuente, for which I obtained the Extraordinary Doctorate Award. After that, I started a new line of research based on the composting of organic waste, which is currently maintained (www.gicom.cat).
In 2005, I joined the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UAB, first as a Visiting Professor and later (2010) as Professor of the University, after passing the corresponding Qualification. Currently, I occupy the position of University Professor at the UAB and I am in the process of obtaining a University Professor position for merit. In addition, I am the Secretary of the Department since 2005.
At the research level, I have been the Principal Investigator of 6 consecutive 3-year projects (2000-present) of the successive National R & D & I Plans, constituting a consolidated Research Group, recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the network TECNIO technology transfer (BIO-GLS Consortium, centresderecerca.uab.cat/biogls/) consisting of 4 professors, 3 postdoctoral researchers and 8 predoctoral researchers (including two industrial doctorates). The group also includes between 5-10 people who spend less than one year.
At the international level, I have participated as a researcher in three European projects, and currently I coordinate the request for various projects in the Horizon 2020 Program. In one of these projects, DECISIVE (www.decisive2020.eu) I am a participant and coordinator of one of the packages of key project work, for the development of solid state fermentation systems from digestate. In 2012, I had the honor of being funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a project for the improvement of biogas production through the use of nanotechnology, which has resulted in a European patent (European Patent 2,012,123,331) and the creation of a spin-off, of which I am a founding partner (Applied Nanoparticles, www.appliednanoparticles.eu/). I also just received a research project from the Areces Foundation (2019-2022) for the development of new nanocatalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide and methane from biogas to methanol.
Currently, I am Editor-in-Chief of the newly created magazine Frontiers in Environmental Chemical Engineering and I am Associate Editor of Waste Management and Bioresource Technology, besides being part of the Editorial Board of Waste Management and Research. I also act as a regular reviewer in other journals, with a total of more than 650 reviews. I have evaluated research projects for different institutions, such as the CYTED Program (Ibero-American Program of Science and Technology for Development), the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya), the National Evaluation Agency and Prospective (ANEP, Spain), the CSIC General Foundation, the University of Milan, the National Agency for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological (Argentina), the National Research Council of Romania, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Israel Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
In the technology transfer section, I have been responsible for more than 60 contracts and agreements.