**Florica Papa**

Dr. Florica Papa is a senior researcher in the Department of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis at "Ilie Murgulescu" Physical Chemistry Institute of the Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania. The most significant research directions are material chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, and photocatalysis. Her research activities are related to synthesis of mono and bimetallic nanoparticles with controlled morphology for applications in environmental depollution, such as selective catalytic and photocatalytic reduction of nitrates, photodegradation of persistent organic pollutants, photocatalytic oxidation of ammonia nitrogen with ozone in water. Another area of her research interests is the oxidation of C1–C4 aliphatic hydrocarbons on simple and doped oxides; oxidative coupling of methane on rare earth oxides; and the impact of the fractal dimension on the catalytic performance. She was project director for 3 national grants and work team member for more than 25 national and international projects. She is coauthor of 54 ISI articles, 2 book chapters, and 4 patents.

#### **Anca Vasile**

Dr. Anca Vasile is senior chemistry researcher in the Department of Chemical Kinetics at "Ilie Murgulescu" Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Romanian Academy (Bucharest, Romania). Dr. Vasile research deals with the synthesis, testing and evaluation of catalytic materials for applications in environmental depollution, mainly focused on heterogeneous catalysis, photocatalysis and adsorption. Her interest in the research activity is centered on: kinetics of gas–solid interaction; lower olefin (C3–C4) oxidation on multicomponent oxide catalysts; semiconductor properties of oxide catalysts; dynamics of the lattice oxygen in oxide catalysts for selective oxidation catalysis; synthesis of supported metallic nanoparticles; and catalytic removal of organic/inorganic compounds from water, photocatalytic reduction of nitrates from aqueous solutions.

#### **Gianina Dobrescu**

Dr. Gianina Dobrescu is working as senior physics researcher at Romanian Academy, "Ilie Murgulescu" Physical Chemistry Institute, Bucharest, Romania. Research interest: application of fractal theory in surface science, such as adsorption mechanism on fractal surfaces, applying fractal theory to characterize surfaces, modeling adsorption on fractal surfaces, computing fractal dimension from micrographs (TEM, SEM, AFM, STM), experimental adsorption isotherms and scattering experiments (light scattering, X-Ray scattering, neutron scattering), growth surfaces, and computation of time and spatial scaling exponents.
