Personal Presentation

Maria Cristina Vila is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Georesources at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP - https://sigarra.up.pt/feup/en/WEB_PAGE.INICIAL), where she has been teaching since 1992.
She holds a degree in Mining Engineering (1990) from the University of Porto, where she enrolled after completing her bachelor's degree (4 years) in Geotechnical Engineering at the Higher Institute of Engineering of Porto.
She holds a Master's degree in Mineral Resources Technology and Management (1995) from FEUP (in partnership with IST). She completed her PhD in 2005 with the thesis ‘Soil rehabilitation observed through respirometry - signal analysis in biological systems’ at FEUP.
She is a member of the Centre for Natural Resources and Environment (CERENA). She has held the position of vice-president of this research unit since March 2023.
Between December 2020 and March 2023, she was coordinator of the CERENA Environment Group.
Her scientific research focuses mainly on the following areas: contaminated soil rehabilitation; bioremediation; environmental risk monitoring and analysis; technologies and waste management in the extractive industry (tailings, tailings dams and acid mine drainage) and mineral biotechnology.