Ana earned her PhD in Physics in 2009 and did the experimental work at CERN-ISOLDE (Isotope mass Separator On-Line facility).
The Ph.D. covered many topics ranging from radiation detectors to nuclear and ion beam techniques used for materials characterization
and imaging. From 2010 to 2015 Ana was a Post-doctoral researcher at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) Nuclear Microprobe facility
working on ion beam tomography. While doing PhD and Post-doc, she earned scholarships from FCT (the national agency for science
and technology in Portugal). From May 2011 to October 2014 Ana managed and was the team leader (PI) of an FCT-funded R&D project
(PTDC/FIS/115089/2009), with a 92,322.00 euros budget (salaries excluded). In the scope of that project Ana coordinated a
team of four senior researchers and established national and international work-collaborations (e.g. LIP-Coimbra in Portugal,
CENBG in France and JSI in Slovenia). Her interdisciplinary projects span engineering, physical technologies as Materials
Science. From January 2017 to December 2018 Ana led UNINOVA’s Work-Package (WP1) on deposition of thermoelectric thin films
by RF Sputtering and Atomic Layer Deposition, and their characterization though multiple techniques (e.g. SEM, XRD, RBS, Raman
and optical and electrical measurements). Other tasks included devices design, characterization and development of prototypes
as well as assisting the project coordination. Ana did the follow up of all deliverables and milestones, in-direct communication
with the project officers in Brussels, where regularly presented WP1 progress reports. Next, collaborated with NOVA.ID.FCT
in the scope of the CapTherPV project where her activities focused the development and characterization of organic solar cells.
These integrate auto-sustainable devices that combine solar cells, capacitors and thermoelectric materials. For the organic
solar cells Ana used Spin Coating and Thermal Evaporation techniques for films deposition and for the integrated devices
characterization, Ana did Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, IV- Curves acquisition/processing and electrochemical
analysis. Currently, at CENIMAT Ana researches energy storage and harvesting devices as well as low emissivity coatings (multilayers),
particularly for their integration into photothermoelectric devices. Simultaneously she is an invited professor in the Physics
Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Ana is highly interested in all that concerns new product
development, from the early stages of market research to prototyping, pre-production and launch. R&D areas that Ana is particularly
drawn to are: materials science, renewable energies (from capture, to storage and conversion), energy conversion devices,
medical applications (through imaging detection and drug delivery systems), including radiation detectors development and
testing, as data acquisition and processing. More recently, Ana research focused on the development of thermoelectric pastes
for 3D printing for the fabrication of bulk thermoelectric generators and is currently working on the challenging of densifying
the 3D printed parts made of silicide's. She supervised/co-supervised 6 MSc students, published 35 articles in high impact
factor journals, and participated in 35 poster/oral communications, 11 projects, being PI in an FCT project (PTDC/FIS/115089/2009)
and in WP1 of TransFlexTeg EU project. Now, Ana just ended her participation in an FCT project (PTDC/CTM-CTM/1571/2020) about
the development of an All-FIBRE integrated photovoltaic-storage device (All-FIBRE device) that can be weaved in a textile
enabling solar energy harvesting and storage. Since 2022 while supervising a MSc theses at FCUL started working on the development
of Magnetic adsorbers for microplastics removal from water and more recently on hydrogen production and storage .