Bio
Ana Belen Cueva earned her PhD degree in Resources Engineering from the University of Science and Technology KIGAM campus in South Korea under the guidance of Prof. Jin-Young Lee and Prof. Rajesh Kumar Jyothi. Her research specialty is in Hydrometallurgy with special focus in secondary resources. Her current research, under the supervision of Dr. Nikki Thiele in the Chemical Separations Group, is focused in the development of sustainable and optimized technologies for the recovery and separation of rare earth metals. She has ample experience in chemical engineering processes, specifically in separations: liquid-liquid and liquid-solid.
Professional Experience
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge- United States) May 2023 – Present
Postdoctoral Research Associate. Chemical Separations Group. Chemical Sciences Division.
Current Research: Precisely design lixiviant synthesis to selectively leach rare earth metals from monazite. Organic synthesis. Material characterization.
Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources KIGAM (South Korea) March 2019 – April 2023
Researcher in the Convergence Research Center for Development of Mineral Resources (DMR).
Research: Separation of Vanadium and Tungsten from Spent SCR catalyst, Recovery of Tungsten from soft scrap & recovery and separation of rare earth materials using hydrometallurgy
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea) September 2016 - August 2018
Researcher. Worked in Process Analysis Laboratory using ANSYS Fluent for CFD applications.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) August 2014 – July 2015
Coordinator in the CEPRA VII- Red farmacos project.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) January 2014 – May 2014
Teacher Assistant in Exercises of General Chemistry (2 hours per class a week) and Exercises of Organic Chemistry (2 hours per class a week).
Latinoamericana de Jugos S.A. (Ecuador) January 2013 - August 2013
Anaerobic Digestion fruit waste treatment plant startup and commissioning. COD, VFA and Alkalinity chemical analysis and physical analysis of feed and product.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) September 2010 - March 2011
Research assistant for laboratory analysis of oil-polluted soil. Determination of the amount of oil by Soxhlet extraction method and, COD and BOD analysis.
Awards
Korean Government Scholarship for Master’s studies at KAIST, Ministry of International Education South Korea, 2015-2018
University of Science and Technology at KIGAM School full Scholarship, PhD course in South Korea, 2019-2023
Dimitri Mendeleyev Chemical Engineering full Scholarship, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, 2008-2014
University of Science and Technology, UST International Presentation Support Program to attend TMS online 2021, 2021
University of Science and Technology, UST International Presentation Support Program to attend EARTH 2022, Taiwan, 2022
Education
University of Science and Technology – (South Korea) March 2019 – February 2023
PhD in Resources Recycling.(subject of research is Hydrometallurgy: leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange)
Dissertation tittle: Recycling of Vanadium and Tungsten from spent SCR catalyst by hydrometallurgical techniques
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea) September 2016 - August 2018
Master in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CFD research). Minor in Business. Graduated.
Dissertation tittle: Study of the effect of the operational conditions on the crystal size distribution of potassium chloride crystals by numerical simulation.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) August 2008 - December 2014
Chemical Engineering. Minor in Psychology. Graduated