Corrado Maucieri is a doctoral researcher at USC inside the MSCA-NANAQUA Project. He holds a strong passion for biotechnology, chemistry, and materials science applied to environmental and industrial challenges. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, where, during his internship, he studied resistance to oxidative stress in human neuroglobin mutants. He then earned a master’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Padua, focusing on the hydrothermal and biogenic synthesis of luminescent nanomaterials for optical bioimaging applications.

He has gained solid practical research experience through academic and professional projects at the Department of Chemical Sciences (DISC) of the University of Padua. His work included the development of environmentally friendly eutectic solvents for the selective recovery of metals from spent lithium-ion batteries as part of the national project MICS – Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile, funded by the PNRR (National Plan for Renewable Energy and Recycling), as well as the development of analytical methods for the detection of contaminants in printing inks in collaboration with HUBER Group Italia S.p.A.

His work has allowed him to acquire expertise in a wide range of techniques, including spectroscopic methods (FT-IR, NMR, Raman, PL, EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), chromatographic and microscopic techniques (TEM, SEM), as well as various synthetic approaches spanning the organic, inorganic, and biochemical domains.

As Doctoral Candidate 16 (DC16) of the NANAQUA Marie Skłodowska-Curie Network, his research focuses on the catalytic enhancement of the partial nitritation-anammox (PN-AMX) process using metal oxide nanoparticles for the simultaneous removal of nitrogen and pharmaceutically active compounds from wastewater, in support of EU water policy objectives and the transition towards more sustainable and efficient water treatment technologies.