Cátia A. L. Graça did the Integrated Master in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the New University of Lisbon (FCT-UNL) in 2011. As a result of her excellent academic performance, Cátia received the Best Student Prize in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the end of her master studies. After that, in 2012 Cátia undertook a research fellowship at Instituto Superior Técnico dedicated to the photochemical and photophysical characterization of fluorescent probes. In 2014 she received a BE Mundus full PhD. scholarship, a mobility funding from the European Commission that gave her the opportunity to undertake the full PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, until May 2017. During that time, she applied her background knowledge in photochemistry to the development of light-driven processes for water cleaning. After completing her PhD, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher within an academic cooperation program between three important Brazilian universities (UFRN, UFPE, and USP), which included besides a research activities, the supervision of undergraduate students internships, as well as master theses and short-term courses ministration.

In December 2018, she joined LSRE-LCM, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, as Postdoctoral Researcher under the project DEPCAT (December 2018 – December 2020), supervised by Assistant Professor Adrián M.T. Silva. Currently, she is contracted as Junior Researcher for the project SmartOxidation - Membranas funcionais para oxidação de poluentes emergentes em águas residuais, coordinated by Dr.ª Salomé Soares.