(PhD in Chemistry, Geneva U, 2001) Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Organic Electronics: Materials, Processes Devices, is Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at Polytechnique Montreal. Dr Santato’s key achievements include: seminal work on WO3-catalysed water photoelectrolysis for hydrogen (H2) production; groundbreaking work on organic (carbon-based) electronics, specifically on Organic Thin Film Transistors and Ion-Gated Transistors; mixed electronic-ionic transport properties and biodegradability of bio-sourced (extracted from natural sources) materials, e.g. melanin biopigments.
She has conducted and led research projects in both European and North American institutions (including Purdue U, Cornell U and NREL).
For her research on solar energy conversion and light-emitting devices, she has been elevated, in 2016, to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Senior membership. She demonstrated the first melanin biopigment-based supercapacitor. For this work, she was awarded the 2018 Materials Research Society (MRS) Communications Lecture Award. She is fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, of the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Clara is the PI of a Canada-wide Collaborative Research and Training Experience in Sustainable Electronics and Eco-Design (CREATE SEED, 2020-2026) initiative, funded by NSERC, bringing together some 20 universities and industrial partners in Canada and abroad. Her activity in Sustainable Electronics and International Development brough her to establish a UNESCO Chair in Green and Sustainable Electronics at Polytechnique Montreal in 2022. Since December 2024 she is Associate Editor at ACS Sustainability in Chemistry and Engineering. She is member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry).