Trained as a Chemical Engineer, Susana Garcia received her PhD from the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2010 and conducted post-doctoral research at one of the Spanish National Laboratories (INCAR-CSIC) before joining Heriot-Watt University (HWU) in Edinburgh (UK) as an Assistant Professor in 2014. In 2017, she became the Associate Director in Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage at the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS), an interdisciplinary world leading engineering centre, inspiring and delivering innovation for the wider deployment of technologies needed to meet necessary carbon targets. She was appointed to Associate Professor in 2019 and to Full Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering in 2021. In 2023, Prof Garcia received a Visiting Professor Award to move to École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and in 2024 she was named Global Head of the Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University. An internationally recognised expert on low carbon separation processes, CCUS and DAC technologies, leading AI-driven materials discovery for industrial decarbonisation projects. Her leadership roles include participation in funding agencies' peer review panels of research centres of excellence and prestigious grants and fellowship programmes; Scientific advisor to companies, foundations, and other investors; and Member of Scientific Societies. She has collected several accolades and was the recipient of the SRUK Emerging Talent Award 2020.

Low-carbon technologies and energy systems; carbon capture, utilization and storage; Direct Air Capture; gas separation; big data science.

Her research focuses on designing novel materials and processes to efficiently mitigate carbon emissions in different power and industrial sectors and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Her team at HWU has changed the paradigm on how novel processes based on advanced materials are designed by integrating process engineering and basic science.

Professor in Chemical and Process Engineering