PATRICIA
SANMARTIN SANCHEZ

My major research interests include stone microbiology, biofilm at the stone/air interface, bioreceptivity and the development of innovative environmental technologies aimed at managing, assessing and mitigating natural and anthropogenic impacts on stone resources. My research activity has mainly been developed at the Universities of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Alicante (2008, 2009), Milan (2010, 2012, 2015), Harvard (2013-2014) and Oxford (2019). I have participated in 22 (inter)national projects and 46 R&D contracts, in 20 of them as Principal Investigator (PI), resulting in >100 publications (including 63 JCR papers), 76% as main (first, last or corresponding) author, cited over 2200 times. I started conducting research in the field of cultural heritage conservation science by studying contemporary art materials, in collaboration with the Galician Centre of Contemporary Art (CGAC) and with a Research Collaboration Grant, MEC (2003-04). I then went on to study materials for protecting and consolidating stone heritage, as a Posgraduate Research Fellow, Xunta de Galicia (2006-07). During my PhD studies (2007-12) as an FPI researcher, I undertook extensive research on the early detection of damage based on the quantitative determination of the colour of biological colonization on stone. I completed 3 grant-supported research stays at the universities of Alicante (2008 and 2009) and Milan (2010), broadening my knowledge of heritage microbiology and biofilms and optical technologies applied to cultural heritage. My PhD thesis (Jul 2012, cum laude with European Doctor Mention) is a compendium of 11 papers, which received two PhD awards. In 2012, I was accepted to conduct research at Harvard University (US), selected as a Barrié Foundation Research Fellow and awarded a postdoctoral contract from the Xunta de Galicia. Between 2012 and 2015, I worked at Harvard University and the University of Milan (Italy) as PI in the BIOREMOGRAF project. In mid-2015, I returned to the USC with a 1-year contract from the Xunta de Galicia for returning researchers, then under a Juan de la Cierva-Incorp contract and later a postdoctoral contract from the Xunta de Galicia. During the period 2016-2019, I began research on the effect of public lighting on the biological colonization of the built heritage, working as PI on LIGHT4HERITAGE project. In Jul 2019, I received the I3 Certificate. In late 2019, I was an Academic Visitor in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (UK). I was the Scientific Director of the CROMALUX project: Third SMARTIAGO Challenge - Smart lighting system for Heritage Conservation, an innovative Public Procurement project with European funds, with a first phase of research within the Innovative Public Procurement -CPI- tender (2020-2022) and a second phase of research within the conservation and maintenance plan of the proposal (2022-2024), awarded €613,581.43. In Aug 2021, I was selected as a Ramón y Cajal researcher (2020 call), scoring 99.2/100 for the area CTM. In Summer 2022, the BIOXEN and FONTES projects, of which I am the PI, were granted funding respectively by the AEI/MCIU (€121,000) and by the Xunta de Galicia (€115,000). I received the accreditation (from ANECA) required for the position of Associate Professor, as Prof Cont Doc in Jul 2013 and Prof Titular Univer in Jul 2021. I have (co-)supervised 10 Masters theses and 11 End-of-course projects in Italy and Spain and 5 Erasmus+, contracted 6 predoctoral and 5 postdoctoral researchers. I am currently (co-)supervising 4 PhD students, linked respectively to the CROMALUX, BIOXEN and FONTES projects.