From 25th to 29th of May, I had the pleasure to participate in the ESS19 conference in Chania, Greece. Biannually, experts in sonochemistry gather to share their newly gained knowledge, expertise, and advancements in the field.
Here, I had the pleasure to show my research with the presentation “Frequency-dependent sonochemical degradation of emerging PFAS in water”, in which I displayed part of the results obtained during
my secondment in Oxford during the summer of 2025. I focused on the influence of frequency on the degradation of PFAS and how to optimize this degradation the frequency must be tuned to the structure of each PFAS. Moreover, the presentation also focused on the effect of the reactor’s geometry on the degradation efficiency and the overall energy consumption.
It was very fulfilling and comforting to see that the “busiest” session was the one focused on sonochemical degradation of PFAS. Colleagues on the field showed many different and interesting approaches on the goal of PFAS remediation: continuous flow reactors, double-simultaneous frequencies, reactor design and geometry… I was also very glad to meet experts that I referenced many times in my presentations, that have inspired my work, and that prove that science is deeply collaborative.
Within the conference organization we had the chance to a private visit of the Archaeological Museum of Chania, housing wealthy archaeological material and artifacts from Chania and its surroundings. After the visit, we enjoyed Greek local cuisine at “To Meterizi”, in Theriso, deep in Chania’s Gorge. Not only we relished into Greek gastronomy, but also its traditional dancing.
In summary, ESS19 was deeply inspirational, motivational, and satisfactory experience. At first, being my first conference abroad, I was very weary of networking, but I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and was greatly relieved of the outcome: true connections with experts that advised me and showed ge
nuine interest on my research. Overall, this conference really set my expectations very high for any other coming!
