María José Moya Llamas holds an Undergraduate Degree in Civil Engineering: Roads, Channels and Ports, a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Water Management and Technologies, and a Master’s Degree in Secondary and Upper Secondary Teaching. She is also lecturer in the area of Hydraulics at the University of Alicante’s Department of Civil Engineering.

She earned her PhD in 2018, after completing the PhD Programme in Water and Sustainable Development offered by the UA Institute for Water and Environmental Sciences. Ms Moya received a cum laude distinction for her thesis, titled Efecto de la tasa de carga orgánica en la eliminación de microcontaminantes, materia orgánica y nutrientes en un sistema UASB-MBR escala piloto para el tratamiento de aguas residuales de tipo urbano (“Effect of the organic loading rate on the removal of microcontaminants, organic matter and nutrients in a pilot scale UASB-MBR system for treating urban wastewater”), for which she received the extraordinary doctoral distinction.

She has worked in the field of engineering for 17 years, and her research work has focused on the study of advanced wastewater treatment technologies. She has participated in numerous national and international conferences related to advanced water treatment, resulting in 18 relevant contributions. As a researcher she has been involved in different projects, such as the TRACE project “Tratamientos combinados para la degradación y / o eliminación de contaminantes emergentes en el agua” (“Combined treatments for the degradation and / or elimination of emerging contaminants in water”) (CTM2013-46669-R) or the ELCES project “Eliminación de contaminantes emergentes a través de anaerobios y aeróbicos procesos en serie y tratamientos complementarios: sistema combinado UASB + SMEB + O3 / AC” (“Elimination of emerging contaminants through serial anaerobic and aerobic processes and complementary treatments: UASB + SMEB + O3 / AC combined system”) (CTM2016-7610-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Both projects were conducted at the UA Institute for Water and Environmental Sciences.

She has received the Best PhD Thesis Award from the University of Alicante/Alicante Provincial Council Research Chair in Water Sciences (2020), as well as two awards from the Spanish Association of Project Engineering and the International Project Management Association: the Young Researcher Award (20th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering, Cartagena, 2016) and the Best Master’s Thesis Award (18th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering, Alcañiz, 2014).