Francesca Spataro graduated in Chemistry and gained a PhD in Chemical Sciences Program at the Sapienza University in Rome; she has worked firstly with research fellows and then with a fixed-term research contract from 2005 to 2016, at the Institute on Atmospheric Pollution Research of the National Research Council (IIA-CNR). From 2016 to 2018, she carried out her research activities at the Water Research Institute (IRSA-CNR), and from 1 August 2019 she is working at the Institute of Polar Sciences (ISP-CNR), Research Area of Rome - Montelibretti .
Dr. Spataro has gained experience in field monitoring campaigns in polar (Arctic) and temperate regions, through National and International projects.
Her research activities focus on:
- Formation, transport and removal processes of gaseous and particulate nitrogenous and halogenated inorganic pollutants.
- Heterogeneous processes involving nitrogen contaminants (especially NO_x, NH₃, HONO, HNO₃).
- Study of the persistence of legacy and emerging organic micro-pollutants in different environmental compartments.
- Development and optimization of analytical methods for the determination of emerging organic contaminants (in particular pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics).
- Determination of persistent and emerging organic micropollutants in different environmental matrices through the combination of extraction techniques (pressurized liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, separatory funnels) with analytical techniques (spectrometry, HPLC coupled with UV detection, fluorescence and mass spectrometry).

Scopus - Author ID: 36605258800