Laura Santonja Blasco
Chemist at Polymer Char
Laura Santonja has a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Production from the Universitat Politècnica de València. Her doctoral research focused on the impact of polylactic acid (PLA) degradation on its morphology and properties, using advanced polymer characterization techniques. This work combined thermal analysis methods such as DSC, TGA, and DMA with complementary chemical and structural characterization techniques, including FTIR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and X-ray.
She completed postdoctoral research in Florida State University in the United States, where she investigated the crystallization processes of precision ethylene copolymers with relevant crystalline behavior. This work built on her doctoral expertise in advanced polymer characterization, with emphasis on thermal analysis and structure–property relationships. In 2017, she joined Polymer Char through a national program, which supports industrial R&D and technology transfer. Since then, she has been involved in industrial projects developing and improving analytical methods in the company portfolio of equipments, including crystallization based techniques, to help accurately characterize polyolefins.