Sandra León Coto is recognized by the College of Chemists of Costa Rica as the Chemist of the Year for her outstanding career as a researcher and academic at the National University, where she has promoted environmental and marine chemistry.
León Coto, who was the rector of that higher education institution in 2010, significantly contributed to the development of policies and projects for the management of water resources, pollution, and watershed management, as well as her exceptional work in training generations of industrial and scientific chemists.
León Coto was recognized for the development of chemistry in the country from the academic sphere. He participated in the development of the curricula for the Bachelor’s Degree in Science Education with an emphasis on Chemistry; Industrial Chemistry, Bachelor’s Degree; Curriculum redesign, Industrial Chemistry, Bachelor’s Degree; Master’s Degree in Environmental Management and Studies.
A successful and renewed approach to teaching of chemistry
With her participation in the creation of the Industrial Chemistry program at the National University, a successful and renewed approach to the teaching of chemistry in the country was given, considering the level of development of the national chemical industry and the needs of emerging technologies, semiconductors, and biomedical industries that are being established in Costa Rica, along with the perspective of environmental sustainability.
She held the position of Director of the Coordinating Extension Unit of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences in the 1980s and has done important work mainly for the coastal communities of the Gulf of Nicoya, under a model of integration of research and university extension in the fields of marine chemistry, fisheries, pollution, and coastal management.
Excelled in the field of Environmental Chemistry
Being a researcher at UNA for no less than 20 years. She has excelled in the field of Environmental Chemistry, particularly in Marine Chemistry and its applications to coastal zone management and fisheries, the interaction of watersheds with the marine-coastal zone, and marine-coastal pollution.
Her work has projected the National University through various interdisciplinary projects on the management of municipal and productive sector waste; physicochemical characterization of estuaries (Golfo Dulce, Golfo de Nicoya, Estero de Puntarenas, among others) and the continental shelf of Central America with application to fisheries management; contamination by organic matter, heavy metals, and petroleum derivatives, sedimentation processes in the coastal zone in relation to state institutions, organized civil society groups, the private sector, and the general community; studies for the management of various watersheds in the country, for example, Tárcoles, Tempisque, Morote, and the San Juan River as a bilateral watershed.
Actively participated in the preparation of no less than 20 technical reports, environmental impact studies, as well as in the development of diagnostics and strategic plans related to water resources and other topics.
For their contribution to this science, the College of Chemists of Costa Rica also awarded honorable mentions to professionals Steven Vargas and Yajaira Salazar.
