Latvian Scientist Ilze Dimanta

Ilze Dimanta, Dr. biol., a researcher at University of Latvia, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager, For Women In Science programme Manager for Baltic countries, L´Oréal Poland Baltic HUB

Born: 1st September 1986, Riga

Studied: Riga Centre Language School, University of Latvia, for a long time studied in Denmark, Austria, and Iceland

Languages: English and French

Scientific interests: renewable energy technologies; hydrogen energy; creation of hydrogen energy on basis of biological sources

Ilze’s research topic – bio-hydrogen research, grew and changed over the years. During her bachelor’s studies, Ilze started with the construction of a manual anaerobic box to ensure the fermentation process.

As part of an Erasmus exchange in 2008, Ilze spent six months at the university in Denmark, where she studied the possibility of extracting hydrogen from blue-green algae. She also brought the research methodology of liquid environment micro sensors to the Latvian Institute of Physics.

During her master’s studies in biology in 2010, Ilze studied for four months at the School for Renewable Energy Science in Iceland, where she worked on th extraction of hydrogen from thermophilic bacteria.

In Latvia, she continued research to find the most optimal producer of hydrogen from bacterial strains isolated in Latvia, as well as the possibility to process the by-products of industrial production into hydrogen – technical glycerin and whey.

Along with her research work, Ilze regularly participated in the popularization of science – both as an organizer and as a lecturer at the Institute of Solid State Physics of the University of Latvia, schools, children’s camps, energy exhibitions in Riga and Hanover, Germany.

For eight years the scientist worked for radio NABA, where she ran the program “In the Name of Science”, where listeners could get acquainted with Latvian scientists’ research, experiments, and innovations and learn more about their academic and practical daily lives.