Mira Petrovic

Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

ICREA Research Professor since December 2005. PhD in Chemistry (1995), Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, University of Zagreb, Croatia. From 1999-2011 research scientist at the Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute for Environmental Assessment and Water Studies (IDAEA-CSIC), Barcelona. Since July 2011 senior researcher at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Girona, Spain. At ICRA she is the head of Water Qualty Area and responsible for the research line Contaminants in water treatment processes. She has participated in over 20 EU projects since 1999; published 210 papers in SCI journals (Hirsch Index 61); edited 8 books and published 36 book chapters. She is Highly Cited Researcher 2018 (ranked in the top 1% by citations) in the field of Environment/Ecology according to Clarivate Analytics. 


Research interests

My main expertise is in the field of analytical environmental chemistry, specifically analysis of trace organic contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupting compounds and surfactants by advanced mass spectrometric techniques (liquid chromatography-tandem and hybrid MS) and the study of their fate and behaviour in the aquatic environment and during wastewater and drinking water treatment. Specific research lines are: (i) non-target analysis and fingerprinting of organic substances in wastewater and receiving environment, (ii) the study of biotic and abiotic transformation of emerging contaminants, identification of transformation products, elucidation of transformation pathways; (iii) the study of occurrence and distribution of emerging contaminants in aquatic environment and environmental risk assessment and (iv) sustainable wastewater management; application of innovative wastewater treatment technologies; innovative practices for reuse of reclaimed waters.

Selected publications

- Verkh Y, Rozman M & Petrovic M 2018, A non-targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry data analysis of dissolved organic matter in wastewater treatment', Chemosphere, 200, 397-404.

- Mandaric L, Mor JR, Sabater S & Petrovic M 2018, 'Impact of urban chemical pollution on water quality in small, rural and effluent-dominated Mediterranean streams and rivers', Science of the Total Environment, 613, 763 - 772.

- Rozman M, Acuna V & Petrovic M 2018, 'Effects of chronic pollution and water flow intermittency on stream biofilms biodegradation capacity', Environmental Pollution, 233, 1131 - 1137.

- Gusmaroli L, Insa S & Petrovic M 2018, 'Development of an online SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS method for the multiresidue analysis of the 17 compounds from the EU "Watch list"', Analytical And Bioanalytical Chemistry, 410, 4165 - 4176.

- de Sousa DNR, Insa S, Mozeto AA, Petrovic M, Chaves TF, Fadini PS 2018, 'Equilibrium and kinetic studies of the adsorption of antibiotics from aqueous solutions onto powdered zeolites', Chemosphere, 205, 137-146.

- Valcarcel Y, Valdehita A, Becerra E, Lopez de Alda M, Gil A, Gorga M, Petrovic M, Barcelo D & Navas JM 2018, 'Determining the presence of chemicals with suspected endocrine activity in drinking water from the Madrid region (Spain) and assessment of their estrogenic, androgenic and thyroidal activities', Chemosphere, 201, 388 - 398.

- Verkh Y, Rozman M & Petrovic M 2018, 'Extraction and cleansing of data for a non-targeted analysis of high-resolution mass spectrometry data of wastewater', MethodsX, 5, 395-402. 

- Čizmić M, Ljubas D, Škorić I, Rožman M, Ašperger D, Ćurković L, Petrović M & Babić S 2018, 'Photolytic and photocatalytic degradation of febantel in aqueous media', Desalination and Water Treatment, 104, 294-303.

Selected research activities

Editor in chief  TrEAC - Trends in Environmental Analytical Chemistry (Elsevier, Impact factor 4,46, ranked 9/80, category Chemistry, Analytical).