Noemí Zaritzky
Noemí Elisabet Zaritzky (born 7 February 1951) holds a degree in chemical engineering by the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (1971). In addition, she has a PhD in chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires and is senior lecturer at the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and the director of the CIDCA. Biography. Since Zaritzky was a child, she showed her interest for science. She graduated as a teacher at the age of 16, and subsequently passed baccalaureate subjects in order to go to a public university. When she was  20 years old, she had already graduated as a chemical engineer, and married one of her faculty partners. They have three children and four grandchildren. Her teaching and research work has resulted in several inventions, which are patented. Professional career. She started as a researcher in the Food Cryotechnology Research and Development Centre (CIDCA), and was the director of this centre from 2003 to mid-2016. She published 250 articles in international journals and over 40 book chapters. Furthermore, she works as a professor at the NULP, where she was in charge of human resource management. Noemí Zaritzky is also a  senior researcher of the board in the Food Cryotechnology Research and Development Centre (CIDCA), an organisation created by an agreement on 10 February 1973 between the NULP and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). In order to reduce the pollution caused by the food industry, Zaritzky developed techniques that apply natural coagulants to treat effluents, and created technologies that take advantage of the collaborative work of bacteria. Microorganisms build up "consortia" that consume pollutants and purify water. Thus, the use of these technologies in the food industry will reduce the pollution that it causes in the waters of  rivers, streams and lagoons. In addition, Zaritzky found a solution to the problem of waste generated by the processing of prawns, crabs, shrimp and crabs in Patagonia. Chitosan is obtained from these crustaceans, which is used to synthesize micro and nanoparticles, which are capable of decontaminating waters with chromium, a carcinogen. In recognition of her research, especially in the cryopreservation of food and biological material, the application of these findings to the productive sector and the training of other researchers, Zaritzky was awarded in 2015 the Bunge y Born Prize of Process Engineering by a jury chaired by Roberto Williams  and Miguel Laborde. Dr. Zaritzky also received the Houssay Trajectory Award in the areas of engineering, architecture and information technology on December 20, 2016.