Marco A. Fraga graduated with a D.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering in the area of heterogeneous catalysis at State University of Campinas/UNICAMP in Brazil.
He joined the National Institute of Technology (INT, Rio de Janeiro), a research centre of Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, in 2000 where he is presently a senior research scientist. Since 2013, he has also been engaged in high-level teaching in the Master´s and Doctoral Program in Chemistry at the Military Institute of Engineering (IME, Rio de Janeiro). He was invited professor in the Physical Chemistry Department at University of Concepcion in Chile (2014-2017) and in the Unity of Catalysis and Solid Chemistry at University of Lille in France (2018-2019). He is a research fellow of the National Research Council (CNPq) and the Rio de Janeiro Research Foundation (FAPERJ).
Fraga has authored several peer-reviewed publications and 17 patents in the field of catalysis. In 2009, 2011 and 2013 he received the Petrobras Inventor Award for his work on catalytic transformation of biomass-derived compounds.
His research interests are in heterogeneous catalysis, applied spectroscopy and synthesis and characterization of solid catalysts. Combining fundamental and applied research, Fraga has been working with governmental and industrial institutions to develop innovative strategies for aqueous-phase catalytic processing of biomass-derived molecules into value-added chemicals and fuels.