Marquidia
Pacheco

The fourth state of matter is a solution involving environmental plasma research to treat air polluted with virus, bacteria and gases. At the Laboratory of Plasmas Applications of the ININ, Mexico, where Marquidia Pacheco develop her research, the plasma technology developed has been successfully used to treat more than 90% of toxic gases (VOC, NOx, SO2), particle material and a diminution of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane. Plasma reactors were entirely conceived by the team, this allows obtaining cheaper devices and could be specifically designed for the type of indoor pollutants.

About Marquidia Pacheco

Marquidia is really convinced that science and technology could have a great impact on diminishing the alarming effects of climate change and also in peace-building. This only could be true if technology and science could be accessible to anyone. That is one reason that Marquidia, in collaboration with other researchers, founded “Sembrando ConCiencias” (Seeding withSciences) movement whose objective is to spread science to young people, mostly to girls, in order to diminish violence that exists in her country, Mexico.

Trajectory of Marquidia has focused for more than 17 years on the area of environmental sciences, more specifically on the development of plasma technologies to treat industrial waste, degradation of gases emitted by vehicles and industries and, currently, on the creation of new sources of energy storage. The development of applied research on plasma and their environmental applications has allowed to Marquidia to be a leader of different projects. These achievements allow her to accomplish international collaborations and the formation of students in engineering degree and postgraduate studies and the publication of her research on books, articles in journals and conferences and patents. She had realised research stays at the Laboratoire Plasmas et Conversion d'Energie, LAPLACE in Toulouse, France; at the University of McGill, Montreal, at the University of Warsaw and at the Institut Supérieur de l’Automobile et des Transports in Nevers, France. She obtained the Silver Medal in the Week of Science and Innovation 2009 in Mexico City and at the same year the Award granted by the Mexican Academia of Sciences –UNESCO-L'OREAL 2009 for Women in Science for her trajectory on plasmas applied in environmental topics and in 2019 the award of Women in Engineering Leadership given by the Nuclear and Plasmas Sciences Society and the IEEE. The results obtained by Marquidia are satisfactory and construct the basis for future devices that could be coupled to car exhaust to treat emissions from cars, to treat smokestacks from stationary emission sources and to maintain public buildings healthy.