Rate My Professor Maria Fátima Fernandes da Silva

Maria Fátima das Graças Fernandes da Silva is a Professor Titular in the Department of Chemistry at Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), where she has served since 1976 and was appointed to her current rank in 2005. She earned a Licenciatura em Química in 1973 from the Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto and a Doutorado em Ciências with a concentration in Química Orgânica in 1978 from the Instituto de Química at Universidade de São Paulo, with a thesis on chemosystematic methods applied to plant families characterized by coumarins under the supervision of Prof. Otto R. Gottlieb. She completed postdoctoral research at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, from 1986 to 1988, working with Peter G. Waterman.

Her research focuses on the isolation and structural elucidation of secondary metabolites from plants, with emphasis on interactions between plants and insects or phytopathogens, phytochemical studies of the order Sapindales, and metabolomic analyses of families such as Meliaceae, Rutaceae, and Simaroubaceae. She served as coordinator of the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Química at UFSCar from 2004 to 2007 and has held leadership positions including titular member of the IUPAC Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry (2004–2007), director of the Natural Products Division of the Sociedade Brasileira de Química (2006–2008 and 2018–2020), and area coordinator in chemistry at FAPESP (2010–2017). She has received the Medalha Professor Otto Richard Gottlieb in 2017, the Medalha Simão Mathias in 2022, and the Prêmio Nacional em Ecologia Química. She has authored more than 300 articles in specialized journals and participated as a speaker at international events.