Dra. Paula Cristina Castilho

• Universidade da Madeira (Portugal)

Paula C. Castilho graduated in Chemistry by the Faculty of Sciences of Lisboa University, Portugal, and got a PhD in Chemistry from Durham University, UK.

Originally from Lisboa, in 1992 she was invited to build a Chemistry Department in the recently launched University of Madeira and spent a few years designing curricula for new degrees, hiring staff, buying lab equipment and designing laboratories. And teaching and trying to put up a decent research group.

Since Madeira has the largest remains of the original Laurisilva forest, it made sense to switch from Physical Organic Chemistry to Natural Products chemistry and the mail goals of research have been centered on the chemical profiling and bioactivity evaluation of endemic species with traditional use in folk medicine.

Since 2019, the INTERREG project MACBIOPEST aiming at the production of biochemical pesticides from local plants is one of the main projects of the research group NatLab, of which PCC is leader, and recently the focus shifted towards food residues as raw materials.

Paula Castilho is presently head of the Chemistry department as well as Degree director the PhD program in Chemistry at Madeira University.