Joanna Szpunar, a great chemical researcher internationally recognized, kindly spoke to BrJAC

Joanna Szpunar graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1986 and obtained her Ph.D. (1992) and D.Sc. (Habilitation) (2000) from the University of Warsaw. Since 1997, she works at the National Research Council of France (CNRS). In 2007, she obtained in Poland the title of professor of chemistry. She has broad experience in the field of mass spectrometry-based bio-inorganic speciation analysis and metallomics with a focus on the identification and quantification of trace element species in biological systems and in the chemistry of metal-biomolecule interactions. She is the co-author of a book and approximately 250 scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Joanna Szpunar is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and has been, for many years, a member of the boards of Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry' and Metallomics. She regularly gives invited lectures at international analytical chemistry meetings and was the chairperson of the European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry (Kraków, Poland) in 2013. The investigations carried out under her supervision and/or with her active participation resulted in the identification of a number of molecular targets of metals in biological systems, as well as contribute to selenometabolomics and selenoproteomics studies in bacteria and plants. In recent years, her interests were broadened to the environmental fate of metal-containing nanoparticles and nanoplastics. She has supervised 12 Ph.D. theses and several post-doctoral fellows. Joanna Szpunar is the laureate of the 2013 Jerzy Fijalkowski Award of the Committee of Analytical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the 2017 European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry. In recent years, Joanna Szpunar has been involved in collaboration with analytical chemists in Brazil, hosting graduate students from the University of Campinas and the Federal University of Pelotas in the laboratory at the Institute of Analytical Sciences (IPREM) in Pau afiliated with the CNRS, lecturing at the Federal University of Santa Maria and co-supervising a Ph.D. student with work carried out at the University of Pau and the Federal University of Pelotas.