 Well, good morning Simone. Thank you for agreeing for this interview for the Inete program. We're going to start with a few questions about your current job. Could you tell me a little bit more of what you're currently doing, your job title, organization and describe your current activities? Yes, okay. So good morning everyone. So my current job, I just started is a postdoctoral fellowship and I work at the Catalan Institute for Water Research. And this is funded by a fellowship that I work for the European Union under the Horizon 2020 program. And basically what I do is fundamental research on wastewater microbiology. And the main goal is to mitigate methane emissions from wastewater. So that is what I will do. Nice, interesting. And why did you decide to enroll within the Inete program? Inete. So at the time when I was looking for master programs, I did apply to many. I applied for master programs in Europe, in Australia and in Canada. But what made me choose Inete in the end was the diversity of the countries involved. Also the nature of the program that you have to move once a semester to each one of those countries and the description of how many nationalities are involved in the program. So that was very appealing to me because every other program was me going to Australia, being surrounded probably by Australians the most or Canadian the most. But this one was so diverse and it was really appealing. What was your experience with the course and what did you like the most of it? My experience was quite interesting because I actually come from the first cohort of the Inete. So we were basically the Indian pigs. I was a generation one. It was quite interesting. It was quite challenging because everything was unknown. In particular in the Czech Republic, I think it was quite interesting because the Institute seemed as if we were the first batch through international students they had ever seen. So it was quite an experience. We really felt like rock stars arriving. In general it was great. I think the program for the first cohort was exceptionally organized because all transitions were really smooth. I really enjoyed it. It was quite an enriching cultural experience. Okay so you felt that it was a very enriching experience by being exposed to so many cultures at the same time. Yeah and so fast because it was every semester a move which is challenging. Some people don't like to move but to me it was quite exciting to have the opportunity to see a different country to explore a different culture. Obviously not the language because in the case of Czech it's impossible but still you experience a lot and to have such a fast pace changing environment really helps you think helps. You see other points of view and helps you grow a lot. And what was your how was your experience living in the three countries in Europe? My experience was great. I think when I left Mexico I was ready for a change so I didn't have any problems adjusting. I actually didn't get homesick. I know that a lot of people may get homesick. I didn't. To me it was all exciting. It was all new. Every single time every semester that we had to move I was ready. I was ready. I was happy and I was willing to explore something different something new. What did you like of each country the most what was your highlight in the experience? Well to me as a personal note I like architecture that is a little bit of why I chose E-Metal because it was in Europe and I know that new at the time there was a lot of medieval architecture so every single time that I moved to a different country it was to see different styles different periods reflected in all the buildings. So in each country in Delft for example what I was amazed by was the canals the canals in Delft in general public well the whole city of Prague was breathtaking to me and in Belgium it was also quite beautiful so in every single country I got to experience what I had liked the most since I was a kid which is all architecture and it was great. What do you see yourself doing in the next few years? So what I see myself doing in the next few years is really related to what I had done before which involves moving and connecting to different people. So just to elaborate a little bit when I finished E-Metal I did my PhD in the Netherlands in environmental microbiology and after that I worked in industry I worked for the pharmaceutical industry as a microbiologist and it was quite a global role so again it was moving it was traveling I had a consultant role to execute projects abroad in the US in Ireland or remotely as we're doing right now with many countries in four continents so I like that I like to talk to people I like to connect and I like to find solutions on issues that are interconnected at different levels and different locations so based on that what I see myself doing is the same but now in environmental and water quality. I really envision myself in a position where I can be that bridge between different disciplines sometimes there is a disconnect between engineers between fundamental scientists so I want to be a bridge to really connect all the dots and create a flat solutions for current environmental issues at a large scale that means connecting multiple countries you know for example the Southeast Asia region is something that interests me a lot and in my experience in industry what I did was a lot of gap assessment and harmonizing and methodologies so what I would like to do is to do that for environmental practices policies and technologies across countries to have a common front for waste management for wastewater treatment strategies etc so that is what I see myself doing. Nice I think it's a really nice role I think it's also very important as over the years the interconnectedness between topics is becoming more and more obvious and there is definitely a need for that. Yes so you kind of already sort of explained the answer to this question but I'll ask it to you so you can elaborate a little bit further which is what is the cause idea or project that you believe in or you would like to pursue? So the main objective of what I described before is mostly targeted to wastewater treatment and engineer agricultural systems such as rice cultivation which is obviously growing a lot as the population keeps growing in particular in Asia so the main idea is to harmonize and to do a gap assessment on all those emission sources for greenhouse gases in that region and then come up with strategies so all the countries adopt the same policies or the same engineering solutions to improve the environmental quality and prevent all these emissions and the loss of waste. One of the main topics that I really want to explore is to transform waste into value or like I like to call it trash to treasure and because there is a lot of compounds in all the wastewater that can be cycled back so then I want to also implement a culture or to try to enable a culture of circular economy related to environmental quality. Nice really nice I think it's quite important to learn from from these experiences in the sanitary sector especially when there's this whole development in cities in Southeast Asia. Yeah and all the countries handle it in the same manner so then that is to me a problem and there needs to be a common front. Totally agree. Do you think that the knowledge that you have gained from the IMETE program can help you to achieve this goal? So I will say yes but I want to elaborate so I think the knowledge from the IMETE program I don't know how much program has changed since I did it I know there were some changes. I think yes it helps you because the IMETE program offers you a menu of a lot of little things from the engineering context regarding environmental quality. You get to see a little bit of wastewater treatment, a little bit of air pollution control, a little bit of more in-depth engineering topics like member and technology. There is a lot also in particular in Delft that is a part that I like the most. You see a lot about social and economical aspects of environmental sciences so then it is a broad menu of many different little things and so it paints the picture of where you can go. I think it paints the picture of what you can do to focus later on one of those. So definitely helps and I think it complements a lot with the whole mobility scheme. So the professional that I am now oriented to the goals that I describe and the experiences that I have relate always to the IMETE program. Keep moving, keep knowing, keep connecting and keep talking to more people. And what advice would you give to our students or anyone interested to apply to the IMETE program? My advice would be to reflect on what the IMETE program offers and what you would want to do in the future because I think it takes a very specific kind of profile to really find the meaning in what IMETE can offer you. So for example in the end your goal would be to maybe just settle back into an opposition. Then it's great to have a master like IMETE, but I don't think you fully explore and exploit the potential that you can gain. So I think the advice is to think and reflect. Do you want to have a role to enable some change or do you want to have a role where you want to go further then IMETE definitely helps you a lot. So just think of where you want to go and how IMETE can help you get there. Okay. Thank you Simone. This would be the end of the interview. I hope you have a lovely end of the day. So I'll stop the recording now. Thank you very much.