Ana C. Marques is Professor of the Chemical Engineering Department, at IST, since 2017 and belongs to the research unit CERENA. She graduated in Materials Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico - Universidade de Lisboa (IST-UL), Lisbon, Portugal, in 2000 and obtained her Ph.D. degree in Materials Sci. & Eng. from the same institution in 2005. She was a Post-Doc at the International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass of Lehigh University, USA, before joining the chemical company Dow Corning in Belgium, as an R&D Chemist, from 2007 to 2011. At Dow Corning, she was the leader of R&D projects, aiming at new chemical products development (e.g. halogen-free flame retardant additives) for large-scale production. This was followed by R&D Coordination roles at Ynvisible S.A. and Greenseal Research Ltd., for the development of electrochromic displays and greener components for polyurethane foams, respectively. In 2014, while holding a FCT Post-Doc grant, she started a Technology Platform on Microencapsulation and Immobilization, her main current research interest, aimed at customized solutions for enabling functionalized, active and advanced materials, always with the target of safe and sustainable products. She has implemented the Lab Hands-on-Polymers, for polymer processing and characterization, in the framework of a Pedagogical Innovation Project. More than 10 granted international patents and more than 70 papers have resulted from her work in the academia and collaboration with the industry. She is currently (2024) PI of 5 R&D projects (FCT and ANI funding), co-PI of a FCT project, and co-supervisor of 12 Ph.D. students (2 completed) and 6 Post-Doc fellows. She has been PI (coordinator) of 10 R&D projects (4 completed), with a total funding of >2,000,000.00 € (to IST/IST-ID), from which 396,323.49 € + VAT were employed in the aquisiton of new equipment to reinforce the laboratory infrastructures at DEQ-IST (CERENA). She has been distinguished for Excellence in Teaching in the last years, and currently belongs to the Chemical Engineering Board (Excutive Committee), as member for International Affairs (Mobility Coordinator). She joined the group of Prof. Markus Niederberger at the Department of Materials at ETH Zürich (Switzerland) as an Academic Guest from April to July 2019.