LABPROSEM

Julio Romero has served as a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses at the University of Santiago de Chile (USACH) since 2003. Concurrently, he has fulfilled the role of Director of the Laboratory of Membrane Separation Processes (LabProSeM).

He has served as Director of the Master's Program in Food Technology, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering (2016-2018), Vice President for Research, Development and Innovation (2018-2020) and Vice President for Academic Affairs (2020-2022) at the University of Santiago de Chile. Additionally, he has held the position of Director of the Project Evaluation Group (FONDECYT Eng 3: Process Engineering) of the Chilean National Research and Development Agency (ANID), and has served as a referee for various national and international projects and scholarship programs.

His pedagogical endeavors are concentrated in the undergraduate programs of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, as well as in the graduate programs of the Faculty of Engineering (Master Program in Chem Eng, PhD Program in Process Eng) and the Faculty of Technology (PhD Program in Food Sci and Tech) of USACH. His areas of expertise include physical chemistry, thermodynamics, and separation processes.

Professor Romero's research encompasses the domain of membrane materials and processes, with a focus on the applications of alternative solvents (supercritical fluids, ionic liquids, and deep eutectic solvents) in various fields including the food industry, mining processes, biofuels, water treatment, the development of precursors, the modification and functionalization of polymers for tissue engineering and packaging, and other related areas. Since 2023, he has served as an editorial board member of Food and Bioproducts Processing (Elsevier).

He has authored over one hundred and thirty articles in mainstream journals (h-index: 38, with more than 4,000 citations), a similar number of presentations at congresses, one book, two book chapters, and three patents, and has served as supervisor and collaborator in more than 30 R&D projects. With respect to the training of human capital and young researchers, he has overseen the supervision of five postdoctoral fellows, 10 Ph.D. theses, and 15 master's theses. Additionally, he has provided mentorship to more than 60 undergraduate students in the execution of their final projects.