The predoctoral researcher Blanca Huidobro López, from the Soil and Water Quality in the environment research group, has received the award for the best presentation at the 10th Meeting of the Spanish Society of Mass Spectrometry (SEEM), which has been held in Córdoba from June 1 to 3, 2022.

The title of the awarded communication is Analysis of contaminants of emerging concern and their transformation products in the environment, presents, on one hand, the development of an analytical method for the detection and quantification of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) and Transformation Products of CECs (TPs) in environmental water and soil samples. On the other hand, the presentation made, includes the application of the method to samples from a pilot-scale vegetation filter and from a laboratory-scale test using infiltration columns. In addition, the oral communication also briefly summarizes the work in progress for the development of analytical strategies for the search and identification of unknown TPs and their application to laboratory-scale water samples.

Blanca Huidobro López holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Complutense University of Madrid and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic University. She joined IMDEA Water in November 2018 as a predoctoral researcher in the Soil and Water Quality in the Environment research group, where she is developing her PhD thesis on the attenuation of CECs and TPs in the pilot vegetation filter, and on the identification of unknown TPs generated during wastewater infiltration into soil, under different conditions.

This work has been supported by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) through: i) Grant CTM2016-79211-C2-1-R funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe and ii) Grant for Blanca Huidobro López (BES-2017-082064) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ESF Investing in your future.