SILVIA SERRANTI

Silvia Serranti is Full Professor of Raw Materials Engineering at Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Chemical Engineering, Materials and Environment (DICMA), Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering.
She is President of the Civil and Industrial Engineering Teaching Area Council (CAD-ICI) at the Latina campus, coordinating the BSc in Environmental Engineering for Sustainable Development and the MSc in Green Industrial Engineering for Sustainable Development.
She is also a member of the Sapienza Technical-Scientific Committee on Sustainability and serves as Sapienza’s representative in the “Resources and Waste” Working Group within the Italian Universities Network for Sustainable Development (RUS).
She served as Director of the “Ore Deposits and Ornamental Stones Museum” of Sapienza University of Rome from 2013 to 2022 and has held the position again since November 2025.
Her research activity focuses on circular economy, sustainable resource management, critical raw materials, urban mining, recycling-oriented characterization, sensor-based sorting technologies, environmental monitoring, and microplastics, with particular expertise in the application of advanced spectroscopic and imaging techniques for the characterization and valorization of waste and secondary raw materials.
She is responsible for two laboratories: the RawMaLab (Raw Materials Laboratory) at DICMA in Rome and the Raw Materials Engineering Lab at the Latina campus. The laboratories are equipped with advanced instrumentation for material characterization and recycling research, including hyperspectral imaging sensors operating in the 400–2500 nm range, high-resolution field spectroradiometers, ultra-compact NIR spectrometers, micro-XRF and handheld XRF systems, micro-FTIR spectrometers, optical microscopes with digital cameras, thermal cameras, laser diffraction particle size analyzers, and equipment for solid waste processing, comminution, screening, and separation.
She teaches courses in urban mining, materials recycling, non-renewable resources, and sustainability science within Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree programmes in Environmental Engineering, Green Industrial Engineering, and Safety and Civil Protection Engineering.
She has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers indexed in Scopus and has participated, both as coordinator and researcher, in numerous national and European research projects. She is currently Scientific Coordinator of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) project NEREIDAS – “implemeNtation of innovativE educational actions foR thE protectIon of Mexico anD colombiA marine environmentS” (2025–2027).
Since 2013, she has served as Independent Expert for the European Commission in the evaluation of research proposals within FP7, Horizon 2020, and Horizon Europe programmes, including several Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) calls. She also serves as independent evaluator for scientific projects funded by international research agencies and institutions in Europe and abroad.
Her scientific activity has received several international recognitions and awards in the fields of hyperspectral imaging, recycling technologies, and waste management.
She is actively involved in international scientific societies, conference committees, and editorial boards related to resource recovery, sensing technologies, and circular economy.