Francisca Puertas

Prof. Francisca Puertas is Research Professor at Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Sciences (IETcc-CSIC).

She was a pioneer in the field of construction materials, in which she made highly relevant scientific and technological contributions. Throughout her career, she focused on reducing carbon footprints and achieving environmental improvements associated with development, manufacture and utilization of cement-based construction materials. Her objectives are aligned with the concepts of “Sustainable Construction” and ”Circular Economy”, directly related to the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the UN in 2015 in the Agenda 2030. The ultimate aim of these topics is to build a more sustainable world able to meet the needs of today’s population without compromising those of tomorrow.

Her work focuses on the physics and chemistry of cement manufacture, where she studied and developed alternative, more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes using or re-using industrial waste or by-products as alternative materials. She is a pioneer and an international reference in the development of new (alkali-activated) cements with improved properties and obtained under more favorable environmental conditions. These new cements and concretes have broad applications in the construction sector, but also in others, such as the immobilization of nuclear wastes, a subject that she is currently developing in the frame of a H2020 project. She also studies the micro- and nanostructural characterization of cements, mortars and concretes and their properties and durability behavior, and the effects of natural radioactivity from wastes and construction materials in buildings.

She has authored/co-authored more than 160 papers published in the highest impact scientific journals in her speciality, and more than 20 books or book chapters. She has led more than 40 national and international research projects and contracts. She supervised 9 PhD Theses and is co-author of 4 invention patents. See: ORCID: 0000-0002-4215-0184 and Researcher ID: F- 5366-2016.

She has been awarded with the award: “The Best Scientific Carrier (SPANISH SOCIETY OF MATERIALS, SOCIEMAT” (2010).

She has been Deputy Director of the Eduardo Torroja Institute of Sciences and Head of the Department of Synthesis, Characterization and Recycling of Materials at the same Institute. She has also been a member of the CSIC’s Area Commissions for Science and Technology of Materials and Publications. She is the Honorary Director of the international scientific magazine “Materials of Construction”, published by the CSIC, after 23 years as Editor-in-Chief. She is also a member of the Editorial Boards of some of the leading international Journals in her speciality. She is a member of the Permanent Cement Commission at the Ministerio de Fomento.

Now she is the Executive Vice President of the CSIC’s Commission for Women and Science. She has also been member of this CSIC´s Commission of Women of Science a representing to Material Science and Technology. She has been also General Secretary of the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT) (2013-2016). She is the author of the book “The Role of Women in Science and Technology” (Ed. Santillana, 2016, 2nd edition 2018) and co-author of the book “Gabriella Morreale. Her life and her time” (Editorial UAM, 2019); book that has been awarded in 2020 with the First Prize of the XXIII National University Publishing Awards, in the category of Scientific Dissemination (2020).