I come from Italy and I completed my bachelor degree in Biology to the University of Pisa and my specialist degree in Environmental Biology, with a curriculum in hygiene and safety in the workplace and the environment, to the University of Torino. I am interested in Microbiology, surface water quality, waste water purification and the risk in the natural environment.

I will study the several hundred categories of emerging micropollutants, an important research topic in recent years. Pollutants like microplastics, PFAS, resistant antibiotic bacteria, pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products and many others, are studied for their toxic effects on human health and on environment. On the other hand, wastewater treatment plants are often not designed to treat such contaminants. So the aim of the project is to focus attention on specific micropollutants targets and evaluate innovative treatment that leads to the reduction of these contaminants. Afterwards ecotoxicological tests and analytical tests will be used to evaluate the treatments. Ecotoxicological tests have been chosen because, thanks to the use of indicator species, they allow to evaluate in an integrated way, the toxic effect of these substances at the ecosystem level.

PhD project: Environmental risk of waste water: innovative treatments for the reduction of emerging micropollutants

Supervisor : Prof. Paola Foladori, University of Trento, C3A

Email address: francesca.cutrupi@unitn.it