Maria G. Vaz obtained her Bachelor degree in Applied Chemistry from NOVA School of Science and Technology between 2019-2022. During her third year as an undergraduate student, she conducted her bachelor final project in the Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory under the supervision of Dr Malgorzata Zakrzewska and Dr Vitor Rosa. The project was dedicated to the synthesis of N-heterocyclic carbenes vs meso-ionic carbenes as organo-catalysts for the cyclic carbonate formation reaction. In 2022, she began her master’s degree in Bioorganic Chemistry at the same institution. She returned to the Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory to proceed with her master’s thesis under the supervision of Dr. Vitor Rosa and Professor João Carlos Lima. This project was dedicated to the synthesis and characterization of a family of copper(I) complexes that could act as catalysts for the chemoselective oxidation reaction of primary alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes for the valorisation of biomass derivatives. Since December 2024, she has been working under the supervision of Dr Ana Belén Pereiro and Dr João M. M. Araújo in the Bio(chmeical) Process Engineering Group at NOVA FCT. Her work plan is dedicated to develop and implement a transnational strategy to detect, prevent and mitigate PFAS contamination. Her work resulted in the presentation of four posters at national conferences (Synthesis nd Catalysis Workshop, 2024 IBiCC, 4th Chem&BioChem students meeting and 16th National Physical Chemistry Meeting and 5th Computational Chemistry Symposium). Also allowed her to present two oral communications ( Jornadas Intercalares das Dissertações Anuais dos Mestrados do DQ e DCV 2024 and JorTec'24 de Química). Besides the conferences and students meeting mentioned she also attended others such as First PROTEOMASS-BIOSCOPE 4th PTIM2021 Autumn Course, Second BIOSCOPE PROTEOMASS 4th ST 2021 Autumn Course and 4th International Caparica Christmas Conferece on Translational Chemistry - IC3TC 2021. And she has also participated in the outreach activities of EXPO’2024 and at the European Researchers Night 2024 sharing the work developed in the Coordination Chemistry and Organometallics Laboratory. Finally, in 2024 it had the opportunity to be part of the organising committee of the VIIIJIF Jornadas Ibéricas de Fotoquímica, I Franco-Iberian Conference on Photochemistry, and is now involved in the organisation of the upcoming 21st European Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry (ESFC).