Dr. Elisa Rojo Nieto

Elisa Rojo Nieto
Foto: André Künzelmann/ UFZ

Adresse:
Permoserstr. 15
04318 Leipzig

Gebäude: 7.3
Raum: 1.034
Telefon: +49 341 6025-1567

elisa.rojo-nieto@ufz.de
 

Research Interests

Elisa joined the UFZ in September 2017. She has been part of the ERC project: “CHEMO-RISK”. Within this project, she focused on the development of “chemometers” (understood as a common and well-defined reference phase for passive equilibrium sampling in different phases) to broaden the scope and the applicability domain of current passive sampling devices and to study which processes drive the enrichment of pollutants in aquatic biota on a thermodynamic basis. In addition, she has been also part of the BMBF funded project "MICRO-FATE", where she was responsible of the analysis of pollutants in marine water and plastic samples (blog). Since 2020, she is involved in the HGF project "EXPOSO-METER", where she explores which processes drive the bioaccumulation of pollutants in top predators (incl. humans) on a thermodynamic basis. She is currently main supervisor of two PhD students and advisor of two junior postdocs. Since 2022 she is elected member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the UFZ and since 2024 she is part of the editorial board of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry journal.

She completed her Ph. D. in the program Marine Environment: Science and Sustainable Development at the University of Cadiz, studying the fate and effect of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) in the marine environment. Amongst others, she has proposed the use of passive sampling and dosing to 1) reconstitute complex environmental mixtures of HOCs in toxicity tests and 2) use freely dissolved concentrations in pore water and specific biota-to-sediment accumulation factors to estimate concentrations of HOCs in target organs of fish.

Besides her dedication to research and academia, she has also been working (2012-2013) as head of the analytical laboratory and related projects in CTAQUA (Andalusian Aquaculture Technological Centre, Spain). Furthermore she was a member of the coordination team of the International Campus of Excellence of the Sea, CEIMAR (2013-2016).

Previous positions

2016 - 2017

Independent Project Manager – Collaboration U. of Cadiz
▪ Project: Marine litter: The case of Spanish beaches
▪ Project: Environmental Impacts of marine litter
▪ Coordinator of the Course "Marine litter: the environmental challenge of this century for our oceans" in the Scientific Summer Camp (2017), University of Cadiz

2013 - 2016

Scientific Project Manager in the Coordination Team (90% Management, 10% Research)
International Campus of Excellence of the Sea (CEIMAR) 

2012 - 2013

Head of the analytical laboratory in CTAQUA and related projects (90% Management)
Andalusian Aquaculture Technological Centre (CTAQUA), (Spain)

2008 - 2012

Researcher and University Lecturer (90% Research, 10% Lecturing)
University of Cadiz (Spain)
FPU program (competitive call, Spanish Ministry of Science)

2007 - 2008

Postgraduate Fellowship
"La Caixa" Foundation Fellowship, competitive call (Master studies)

2006 - 2007

Research collaborator Fellowship, during last year of BSc
University of Cadiz (Spain)

2005 - 2007

Student research collaborator
University of Cadiz (Spain)

Education

2012

PhD in Marine Pollution (Extraordinary Award for Doctorate in Sciences)
University of Cadiz

2008

Master in Oceanography
University of Cadiz

2007

Bachelor + Master in Marine Sciences
University of Cadiz

Current Projects

2024 - 2027

nanoINHALE: Inhalation as the major uptake pathway for micro- and nanoplastics in air-breathing organisms
Role: Part of the coordination team, and PI and main PhD supervisor of the subproject “Are we what we breathe? Plastic-associated chemicals in terrestrial biota, including simulated leaching”

2020 - 2026

EXPOSO-METER: Characterizing the environmental and human exposome of mixtures of pollutants at high trophic levels
Role: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, focused on Human, Marine and Terrestrial Mammals Exposome and co-leading the research group.

Completed Projects

2019 - 2021

MICRO-FATE: Occurrence and fate of microplastic in the marine environment
Role: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, focused on the study of pollutants in water and plastics.
My role in this project, where I was participating for few months, was to lead the analysis of pollutants in water and plastics, from leading the sampling group for water in the ocean during 5 weeks to coordinate the chemical analysis and interpretation of results (draft in preparation)

2017 - 2019

CHEMO-RISK – Starting Grant ERC project
Role: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher. My role in this project has been co-leader of the research group, being at the same time responsible of one of the 4 subprojects (thermodynamics of bioaccumulation in aquatic environments).

2017

Marine litter: The case of Spanish beaches
PI: Elisa Rojo-Nieto and Tania Montoto;
My role in this project has been coordinator, and direct responsible of the hired person.
Ecologistas en Acción, in collaboration with UCA and ULPGC

2016

Environmental Impacts of marine litter
PI: Elisa Rojo-Nieto and Tania Montoto;
My role in this project has been as researcher and coordinator; direct responsible of the hired person.
Ecologistas en Acción, in collaboration with UCA and ULPGC

2013 - 2016

CEI•MAR - International Campus of Excellence of the Sea
Scientific Project Manager; production of CEIMAR documentation and project management, analysis of indicators and data on strategic areas and areas of specialization, proposals and projects for the improvement of indicators and the production of information for different dissemination platforms.

2010 - 2011

Collaboration in "FP6 Integrated Project OSIRIS -Risk Assessment of Industrial Chemicals through Integration of Non-Test and Test Information [COGE-037017]"
Institution where project took place: National Environment Research Institute (Aarhus University) as a Partner of the Project; Supervisor: Philipp Mayer

2007 - 2010

Assessing the impact of pollution due to anthropogenic chronic activities in the coastal environment
Role: Researcher, studying environmental pollution of HOCs in biota, sediments and water, during my PhD (funding: FPU program).

2005 - 2008

Marine environmental diagnoses and acoustic pollution in the Bay of Algeciras and Strait of Gibraltar area.
Role: Researcher, studying environmental pollution of HOCs in sediments, during my Master Thesis (funding: La Caixa Fellowship).

Publications

Index:

You could use our publication index for further requests.

2025 (2)

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2024 (1)

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2023 (5)

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2022 (1)

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2021 (3)

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2019 (1)

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2018 (1)

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2017 (1)

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