Vanessa Martins has graduated in Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) in 2009. In 2010, supervised by Doctor Manuela Vilarinho and Professor José Miguel Loureiro, she started her path in research on a project focused on enzymatic catalysis. A few months later, she joined in a project as a fellow researcher, under Doctor Miguel Angelo Granato supervision and Doctor Miguel Angelo da Silva Jorge co-supervision, until July 2013. The work focused on molecular simulation studies of xylene separations using novel Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) materials, as part of an FCT-funded research project. Since then, she has been participating in different projects on light olefin/paraffin separation by cyclic adsorption processes under the supervision of Doctor Alexandre Ferreira and co-supervision of Professor Ana Mafalda Ribeiro and Emeritus Professor Alírio Rodrigues. Since 2017, she was/is also involved in several ExxonMobil projects.

 She got her Ph.D. degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from FEUP with the thesis entitled "Light Olefin/Paraffin Separation by Cyclic Adsorption Processes" in October 2019, under the supervision of Doctor Alexandre Ferreira and co-supervision of Professor Ana Mafalda Ribeiro and Emeritus Professor Alírio Rodrigues. Now she is working as a Post-doc Researcher in ethane/ethylene and propane/propylene separation by PSA and SMB using paraffin-selective metal-organic framework adsorbents under the supervision of Doctor Alexandre Ferreira and co-supervision of Professor Ana Mafalda Ribeiro and Emeritus Professor Alírio Rodrigues.