Sofia Friães graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Vila Real, Portugal) in 2012, and completed her Master degree in Biochemistry at the same University (in 2015). She obtained her PhD in Sustainable Chemistry in December 2022, at ITQB NOVA-University Nova of (Oeiras, Portugal), where she worked in the Organometallic Catalysis group under the supervision of Dr. Beatriz Royo. During her academic career, she worked in the areas of chemistry and biochemistry. In her Master, she developed a research project dedicated to the synthesis of new organic compounds based on asymmetric squarylic cyanines, for their application in cancer photodynamic therapy. She studied the effectiveness of the synthesized compounds through in vitro assays, using cancer cell lines. During this time, she participated in several scientific meetings where she had the opportunity to present her work in two oral and two poster communications. The work developed during her Master thesis resulted in two scientific publications. In 2016, she joined the group of Dr. Beatriz Royo at ITQB NOVA, granted with an FCT fellowship (BI for Master holders of the Research Unit Bioresources 4 Sustainability) to work in the area of organometallic catalysis. In particular, in the development of inexpensive and non-toxic catalysts (based on manganese and iron metals) for the synthesis of biologically relevant organic compounds. The results of this work are described in one publication, which was selected as a Very Important Paper (VIP) and Highlighted in the journal cover). Two years later (January 2018), she enrolled in PhD in Sustainable Chemistry (PDQS), granted with a fellowship obtained in a competitive call funded by FCT (Ref. SFRH/BD/131955/2017). The main goal of her PhD was the development of a new family of phosphine-free manganese and rhenium complexes and their application in catalysis, namely in CO2 activation and in borrowing hydrogen processes. In this project, triazole-based organic ligands were prepared through “Click Chemistry” as precursors of triazolylidene ligands. Subsequent coordination of these ligands to manganese and rhenium allowed the isolation of an entirely new family of metal complexes. The effectiveness of the synthesized complexes in the catalytic electroreduction of CO2 and in borrowing hydrogen processes was also explored, and several highly efficient catalytic systems were disclosed. The work developed in this project was disseminated at several national and international conferences (a total of 8 communications, 2 oral and 6 poster), and resulted in the publication of 5 scientific publications and a Book Chapter. Apart of this work, during the period of her PhD, Sofia participated in multidisciplinary projects dedicated to the development of new anticancer and antimicrobial metal complexes. She prepared a variety of metal complexes that in collaboration with biologists were investigated as antimicrobial agents against several bacteria strains, and as anticancer agents various cancer cell lines (A2780 ovarian carcinoma, A2780cis ovarian carcinoma resistant, HCT116 colorectal carcinoma). These works resulted in 3 scientific publications. In addition, during her PhD, she supervised several master and undergraduate students, and she was co-supervisor of a bachelor project. Moreover, she participated in many scientific dissemination activities, including Microorganism Day, ITQB’s open days and Summer Science ITQB-NOVA.