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Elza Bontempi is a researcher with expertise in all aspects of the circular economy and an interdisciplinary skill set. Indeed, she has extensive knowledge about materials and eco-materials, because she focalized her research on sustainability innovation (e.g., alternatives to waste landfilling), strategic environmental management, and sustainable raw materials recovery. Her work mainly proposes new technologies for critical raw materials recovery. Indeed she has proposed several patents in this field (see the main research activity).

Main research results:

- Elza has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking research, primarily focused on the recovery of critical raw materials.

- Pioneer in spent lithium-ion batteries recovery: Her works demonstrated the feasibility of a new treatment (Italian patent n. 102022000002351 - PCT/IB2023/051034). This patent won in 2024 the “Intellectual Property Award”, a prize proposed by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, in collaboration with Netval and Invitalia. See all the recent ANSA news about these results: https://elza-bontempi.unibs.it/ANSA-NEWS.

- Patents and technology transfer: Two of her patents, developed within EU projects in the last years, have been successfully transferred to two companies.

- Support of a proof of concept: MITO TECHNOLOGY investor has financed the proof of concept of one of her patent with about 200k€.

- Principal investigator of different projects: Elza is the PI of a research applied project, financed by MUR for about 1 M€ (https://www.openinnovation.regione.lombardia.it/it/news/news/8148/batterie-al-litio-il-mur-finanzia-unibs-per-una-nuova-tecnologia-di-re).

- Innovative approach in sustainability evaluation: Elza proposed a simplified method to evaluate the sustainability of raw material substitution (2017 - Journal of Cleaner Production). Her book about “Raw materials substitution sustainability” is used as a reference for the students of the "Energy and Materials Sustainability" courses at different universities.

- Outstanding researcher: TOP WORLD RESEARCHER (first position researchers by SciVal) for the research topic of Waste Incineration; Municipal Solid Waste; Carbonation; for the 2017-2020 period. She was one of the first researchers to propose waste carbonation. Her works were cited and reproduced by several world reserchers.

Some of her works have been highlighted by Science for Environment Policy, which is the news and information service published by the Directorate-General Environment, European Commission.

Elza Bontempi story and achievements were published in Il SOLE 24 ORE, a national newspaper, on December 2023.

See the Paolo Bricco article - Il Sole 24 ore

See also the Giornale di Brescia news about my research activity on January 2025

Full Professor in Fundamental Chemistry for Technologies (from 2011) at the University of Brescia (Italy).

Top Italian Scientist (https://topitalianscientists.org/) in Natural & Environmental Sciences, AREA: environmental chemistry.

She is on the list of the UNSTOPPABLE WOMEN (the 1000 women who are changing Italy) and one of the 100 esperte.

For the publications list see: Google Scholar

Scopus Author ID: 7004176714

RESEARCHER ID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/F-3216-2010

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1656-7506

To advance the state of play about circular economy in higher education, she published a book about “Raw materials substitution sustainability” in 2017. This book is used as a reference for the students of the "Energy and Materials Sustainability" course of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (https://kth.se/en), which is ranked as the 73rd university worldwide.

PRIZES:

- 2012 International prize: “what are you doing for a better society?” (2nd position) from European Projects Association for the proposed project about the circular economy (waste recovery)

- 2016 International prize: “European Business Idea Competition on raw materials” from European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Raw Materials, for the proposed STARS project about the circular economy (waste recovery).

- 2018 Special mention on the national ITALIADECIDE prize for the development of new material for air particulate matter trap.

- 2018 Winner of Prize for “Enabling technologies and innovative solutions for sustainable cities” from the Italian association for industrial research (AIRI).

- 2018 Winner of the GAETANO MARZOTTO prize (22th November 2018) for the development of a new eco-material recovered from industrial by-products;

- 2018 Winner of the ITWIIN (Italian Women Innovators and Inventors Network) prize (assigned on 9th November 2018 http://www.itwiin.org/) for the development of a new eco-material recovered from industrial by-products;

- 2019 Innovation Village Award, for the best project in the frame of Global Agenda for sustainable development (4th April 2019).

-2019 Bronze medal award for the international poster contest of Remtech (the only permanent international event dedicated to remediation, climate changes, and circular chemistry), about new technology for sewage sludge treatment (September 2019)

-2020 national winner of the ENERGY GLOBE AWARD, the most significant environmental award worldwide.

-2021 finalist of the international ENERGY GLOBE AWARD prize, the most significant sustainability award worldwide

- 2022 International prize: “SusCritMOOC business idea competition on Critical Raw Materials” from European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Raw Materials, for a patent about the low-energy microwave carbothermal extraction of critical raw materials

- 2022 Merit for the scientific and technological results granted by the mayor of Bienno

- 2023 Finalist of the Donna dell'anno Award, and awarded of a special mention

- 2023 Winner of the Premio 2031 Primo round (ex GAETANO MARZOTTO prize)

- 2024 Winner of the Intellectual Property Award prize of Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy for the CLIMATECH category

- 2024 Winner of the WE Award – Women Excellence 2024 in the "Education and Research" category prize of Il Sole 24 ORE and Financial Times, in collaboration with SKY.tg24

Elza was the TOP WORLD RESEARCHER (first position of reported 500 researchers by SciVal) for the research topic of Waste Incineration; Municipal Solid Waste; Carbonation; for the 2017-2020 period.

AIRI report with my contribution "Innovations of the Next Future" about ENVIRONMENT AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY

She is currently ranked among the World’s Top 2% outstanding Scientists (from 2021) (lists of most influential researchers prepared by Elsevier BV, Stanford University, USA).

High-impact dissemination activities

See my invited TEDx presentation made on 18 May 2024

TV invited interview about critical raw materials and circular economy at the Automotive Business Summit 2023 (Sole 24 Ore)

All the event is available on: Sole 24 ore

TV invited interview about critical raw materials (CASA ITALIA RAI) 2024

Participationn to the Cernobbio Ambrosetti FORUM https://www.ambrosetti.eu/innotech-hub/technology-forum/

Oltrecultura FEST

TG Leonardo RAI 3 interview January 2025

My invited presentation at the FUTURA Colloquia with Robert Engle, Nobel Laureate in Economics, and Carl Frey, Oxford University

Main last internatonal conferences as invited and keynote speaker:

1) WASTES SOLUTIONS, TREATMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES (Coimbra, Portugal 2023)

2) WASTE MANAGEMENT EUROPE (Bergamo, Italy, 2023)

3) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TRENDS IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (TEERSD-2023) - Chhattisgarh, India, 2023

3) Technology Forum 2024 - The European House-Ambrosetti (STRESA (VB) 2024) - https://www.ambrosetti.eu/innotech-hub/technology-forum/

Main last international conferences as a scientific committee:

1) 2nd International Conference on Atmospheric Dust (Taranto, Italy, 2016)

1) 2nd International Conference on Applied Mineralogy & Advanced Materials (AMAM-ICAM 2017) (Taranto, Italy, 2017)

3) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (ONLINE) ON COVID CHALLENGES OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH OF PROCESS INDUSTRIES (CCEEMSGPI-2021)

4) 5th International Conference on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Engineering - GEET-22 - July 20 to 22, 2022 Rome (Italy)

5) Future materials conference (Roma, Italy, 2022)

6) 3rd International Conference on Green Energy and Environmental Technology (GEET-24) - July 29 to 31, 2024 Lisbon (Portugal) https://greenenergy-europe.eu/

7) "World Recycling Convention", Rome, from October 28th to 30th, 2024 https://recycling.thepeopleevents.com/

8) World Summit on Environmental Science and Applications, Paris, France - March 27-29 2025. https://environmentalsciencesummit.org/

9) CESEE 2025 2025 (3rd International Conference on Chemical, Energy Science and Environmental Engineering). Leuven, Belgium | May 28-31, 2025 https://www.cesee.org/

10) Emerging Materials Global Network Annual Meeting (EMGN 2025) Conference https://2025.emgn-meeting.org/ Istanbul Turkey September 2025

11) "3rd World Recycling Convention", Barcelona, from October 29th to 31st, 2024 https://recycling.thepeopleevents.com/