Monica Passananti is an Associate Professor at the University of Turin in Italy and the University of Helsinki in Finland. She obtained her PhD in 2013 from the University of Naples Federico II for her work on the photodegradation of pollutants in surface waters. After the PhD she worked as post-doc at the ICCF in Clermont-Ferrand, Université Blaise Pascal (France) and lately at the CNRS, IRCELYON in Lyon (France). During this time, her scientific interests shifted towards atmospheric science, specifically the study of the composition and reactivity of cloud waters, and more generally, chemical heterogeneous reactions in the environment, such as seawater-atmosphere exchanges and air-solid reactions.
Since 2016, she has worked at the University of Helsinki (UHEL, INAR). Initially, she worked as a postdoc on an ERC-AdG project studying and modelling cluster detection in the atmosphere. However, after a few years, she started her own project and opened a new research line on the fate of nanoplastics in the environment. She obtained funding from the prestigious European Research Council (ERC-StG) for the NaPuE project. The project focuses on the fate of nanoplastics in the environment with particular attention to aquatic and atmospheric compartments. She also coordinates national and international research projects, focusing primarily on the environmental impact of micro- and nanoplastics. She currently splits her time between the University of Turin and the University of Helsinki, promoting international collaboration between scientific institutions.
