1. Biography
Erika Jimena Espinosa-Ortiz was born on July 8th
, 1984, in
Mexico City. At the age of 17, Erika was selected as one of the
participants to represent Mexico in the prestigious contest
Stockholm Junior Water Prize, during the World Water Week
in Stockholm, Sweeden, 2001. Being part of this experience
impulsed her to pursue a career in Environmental Science. She
received her Bachelor's Science degree, summa cum laude, in
Environmental Engineering from the Autonomous
Metropolitan University (UAM), Mexico, in 2006. Upon
graduation, she worked for one year as environmental
consultant, analyst and laboratory assistant in the Water
Quality and Residues Laboratory at UAM. Erika obtained two
Master's degrees. The first one in Environmental Engineering,
from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
in 2009; during this period she investigated the biological contamination of source water supplies in
the TulaValley, Mexico, which is a region that has been irrigatedwith wastewater for over a hundred
years. She was awarded with a Fulbright scholarship to complete the second Master's, which she
obtained from Purdue University, USA, in 2010, in Ecological Sciences and Engineering. Her research
back then consisted on assessing the ecotoxicological effects of gallium and indium on soil microbial
activities and plants. In 2012, Erika started her PhD program at UNESCO-IHE, as part of an Erasmus
Mundus Joint Doctorate Program on Environmental Technologies for Contaminated Solids, Soils and
Sediments (ETeCoS3
). Erika devoted her work to investigate the use of fungi as selenium and
tellurium reducing organisms and their potential in wastewater treatment and nanotechnology. As
part of her program, Erika also performed research at Paris-Est University and at the Center for
Biofilm Engineering in Bozeman, Montana, USA. Erika has 9 years of laboratory experience and
research-related work. She also has participated in international conferences and already has a
number of scientific publications including a book chapter and peer-reviewed journals. Erika
continues to be an active young professional with aninterest to pursue a careerin science.