Prof. Antonio Zuorro, Ph.D.
Professor and Researcher at the Department of Chemical, Materials and Environmental Engineering of Sapienza – University of Rome, where he obtained the National Scientific Qualification from 2014.
Circular and Bio-economy Expert, in 2017 won a European project Horizon 2020 – BBI JU (€ 7.2 million) as Scientific Coordinator leading an international consortium of 13 partners, including public institutions and multinational private companies. The project presented (“Separation, fractionation and isolation of biologically active natural substances from corn and other side streams”) obtained the evaluation of 14.5 over 15 receiving a co-financing of over 4.2 million euro from the European Union and from Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC).
He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and co-author of national and international industrial invention patents.
His research activity has developed in various sectors, including catalysis, chemical thermodynamics, enzyme kinetics, protein engineering and transport phenomena in microencapsulated systems.
Current research is mainly focused on the treatment and re-use of agro-industrial residues, especially through the recovery of high added value bioactive compounds, and the degradation of pollutants by advanced oxidation processes.
Another field of research concerns the development of functional products with antioxidant and / or antibacterial and anti-quorum sensing properties.
In recent years, further lines of research have been developed, also with the collaboration of important industrial partners, concerning: the production of “green” nanoparticles of cosmetic and biomedical interest; the optimization of new generation biorefineries operating with microalgae.
The investigated themes are carried out also through international collaborations, in particular with the Université de La Lorraine (Nancy branch) and with the ILAB research group (Italian – Latin American Biochemical Group) of which he is Coordinator and to which they refer, among others, researchers from the Universidad Industrial de Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia), from the Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander (Cúcuta, Colombia), from the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (Chile), from the Universidad de Cartagena, from the Universidad de Pamplona and the Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas (Cuba).
