Tamara Azevedo Schueler has completed her Bachelor and Master’s degree in Microbiology by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. The combination of biotechnology and engineering has always been her main passion. For that reason, she decided to develop her projects for bachelor´s and master’s degree at School of Chemistry, where offers courses of chemical and bioprocesses engineering. She was admitted to the Laboratory of Biodegradation, Biocorrosion and Biosynthesis of the Biochemistry Department. Therefore, these projects have made her interact with different fields of study at the University expanding her network of contacts and knowledge.
Thanks to her experience, she was invited to conduct a research project at Centre for Mineral Technology (CETEM), as Research Fellow of the Institutional Capacitation Program. This Center is the only Brazilian federal research institute focused on mineral technology and the environment. The aim of her project was to perform a biological leaching technology using agrominerals rich in potassium source for agricultural application.
As part of SULTAN team, Tamara is working at the Technology University of Clausthal (Germany) in the Department of Mineral and Waste Processing. Her research focuses on the development of a new approach to high pressure leaching of Cu-Zn, Zn-Pb and Cu-Zn-Pb tailings using alternative sources of salt water (seawater, industrial wastewater, brines or groundwater) in a single step and combined processes with bioleaching.