Curriculum
Paola Verlicchi took her Degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors) and her PhD in Safety and Environmental Chemical Engineering at the University of Study of Bologna, Italy. She then carried postdoctoral research at the University of Ferrara, Italy.
She is currently an Associate Professor of Environmental and Sanitary Engineering at the Department of Engineering of the University of Ferrara (Italy), where she has also served as an Assistant Professor.
She is the Supervisor of the Environmental and Sanitary Research Group.
She obtained "Abilitazione" for the position of of Full Professor in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering in the first call 2016.
She is currently teaching at the University of Ferrara in the field of the Environmental and Sanitary Engineering.
She is Co Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring and Management (ENMM), an international journal by Elsevier (ISI/SCOPUS with Impact Factor), Editor of Water Science and Technology, Water Science and technology-Water Supply (IWA), Associate Editor of Science of the Total Environment (Elsevier, ISI/SCOPUS, IF), Special issue Editor of Science of the total environment and member of the Editorial Board of Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health (Elsevier, ISI/SCOPUS).
She is a member of the Editorial Board of the book series The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, Springer.
She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Catalan Institute for Water research (ICRA) in Girona, Spain.
She is the coordinator of activities in national research projects and she was involved in the Advisory Board of European Projects (ENDETECH e TreatREC).
Between October 2015 and March 2018, she was commissioned to carry out scientific technical consulting activities for the Parliamentary Committee (Chamber of Deputies and Senate) in the field of illegal activities related to the waste cycle and environmental offenses.
Betwenn October 2020 and June 2021, she was commissioned by the European Community for an Expert contract by the European Community on the implementation of EU research and innovation policy and programme (Title of the activities: identification of a representative list of chemicals and appraisal of measures for their treatment with wastewater).
She is a Member of the Academic Board of the PhD in Engineering Sciences (2007-current), the Department Council (2007-current), the Department Board (January 2012-2024), the Academic Senate (Dec 2014-Dec 2016; February 2020-January 2023), University of Ferrara Equal Opportunity Commission (October 2017-october 2021) and the Research Council of the University of Ferrara (December 2014 -December 2019).
She is and was a member of the Scientific Committees of national and international Conferences.
She organized the International Workshop on New Perspective in Potabilization for Small Communities at the University of Ferrara (18 January 2017); the summer School "SMART Drinking Water Treatments" at the Scientific and technological Pole of the University of Ferrara (1-5 July 2019); the workshop "Gestione del riuso delle acque reflue depurate - Trattamenti, affidabilità e rischi" within Ecomondo exhibition (Rimini, 5 novembre 2024).
Her main research fields refer to management and treatment of domestic and industrial wastewaters and reuse of reclaimed water.
In the last years her studies were mainly devoted to the occurrence and removal of persistent compounds (pharmaceuticals) in the water cycle and the assessment of the environmental risk due to their presence in the different aquatic environments. She deeply investigated treatability and treatment of hospital effluents.
She was the Scientific Responsible for the University of Ferrara of the European Project H2020 SafeWaterAfrica SWA (duration 42 months, 2016-2019) on sustainable water treatments for rural and peri-urban areas in South Africa. Within this project she is the leader of different tasks and of WP2, a member of the Steering Committee and of the Executive Board. She organized the second international SWA meeting (GA2) at the University of Ferrara, Department of Engineering (18-20 January 2017) and a Summer School for PhD students, researchers and scientists on sustainable water treatments for drinking water (1-5 July 2019).
She was the Scientific Responsible within the University of Ferrara of the European Project H2020-MSCA NOWELTIES (duration 48 months, 2019-2023), leading to the construction of a platform of 14 PhD (double title) projects among 9 European partners. Each research profile refers to new technologies for the removal of emerging contaminants from the water environment. P. Verlicchi was the supervisor of two projects.
Since September 1st 2021 she is the Scientific Responsible within UNIFE of the European project H2020-JPI SERPIC, regarding the development of a innovative technology able to remove contaminats of emerging concern and pathogens (also ARB and ARG) from wastewater and produce an effluent adequate for the direct reuse (agricultural purposes). Within this project, she was leaders of WP1 and of some tasks. In June 2024 she organized the General Assembly GA6 in Ferrara and the workshop on the Management of the Reuse of Reclaimed Water-Treatments, Reliability and Risks during Ecomondo in Rimini (5 November 2024)
Within the JPI network, she was appointed Session chair of the Cross cutting issue (CC#3I) on Mitigation technologies for CECs and AMR (May 2022-).
She is currently working with European research centers (ICRA in Spain, Imperial College London, LIST and University of Luxemburg in Luxembourg, University of Santiago de Compostela and Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, TU in Wien, FKIT in Zagreb as well as South African Universities (TUT in Pretoria, Stellenbosch University Cape Town).
She is Author of more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific publications in SCI journals, book chapters, proceedings of international and national conferences. She is also co-Author, with Prof. Masotti of a technical manual on treatment of wastewaters of small communities, published by Hoepli (in italian).
She is reviewer of more than 40 international journals (ISI/SCOPUS, with IF).
She received the Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing by Chemosphere's Editor and of Outstanding Contribution in Reviewing by the Editors of Science of the total Environment, Ecological Engineering, Journal of Environmental Management, Water Research.
She is the Editor of 3 books:
1. Hospital Wastewater- Characteristics, Management, Treatment and Environmental Risks (ISBN 978-3-319-62178-4) 2018, Springer included in the series The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry
2. Wastewater Treatment and Reuse – Present and Future Perspectives in Technological Developments and Management Issues Elsevier, 2020 volume 5, incluso nella serie Advances in Chemical Environmental Management and Protection, ISBN: 978-0-12-820170-1
3. Wastewater Treatment and Reuse – Lessons Learned in Technological Developments and Management Issues Elsevier, 2020, volume 6, incluso nella serie Advances in Chemical Environmental Management and Protection (ISBN 978-0-323-85684-3)
Research Quality Assessment (VQR) by ANVUR:
VQR 2011-2014: EXCELLENT
VQR 2004-2010: EXCELLENT
Metrics (October 2024)
Scopus: H-index 25; citations: 5726
Elsevier:Twelve papers have more than 100 citations. The top cited paper, published in 2012 in Stoten, has reached 1770 citations. It was the 3rd among the most cited articles in STOTEN 2012-2017. In the period 2013-2017 it was always in the first 5 top articles in this ranking.
Elsevier: two papers are included in STOTEN Special issue "Pharmaceutical and illicit drugs in aquatic systems.
Google scholar: i10-index = 46, H-index = 32; citations = 8304
Essential Science Indicators (Thompson and Reuters): "Highly cited papers" including top 1% of the academic field of Environmental/Ecology or Engineering: 4 papers in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 3 papers in 2021, 2022 and 1 in 2023 and 2024.
http://docente.unife.it/paola.verlicchi
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zWO5pY8AAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paola-Verlicchi
