Dr Jane Estephane obtained her PhD degree from Claude Bernard University and Turin University in 2008. Following her defense, she received the “PhD Excellence Award” from Claude Bernard University for her outstanding findings. In 2008, Dr. Estephane acted as an Area Sales Engineer/Manager, responsible for managing catalysts related services for one of the Supermajor oil groups (Total Company). She was also trained at the French Institute of Petroleum (Institut Français du Petrole, IFP) in 2009 and 2010, a very reputed Institute at the frontier between academic and company-driven research and development.

Dr. Estephane, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, has resumed her academic career in 2012 and has been conducting research at UOB since 2013. Since then, she has published several scientific articles in high impact factor international journals and has also presented her work in more than 50 scientific national/international conferences.

Her research interests are at the interface of catalysis science and engineering, with a focus on designing novel catalytic materials for the production of alternative fuels and the protection of the environment. Her continued activities allowed her to secure PhD scholarships, national and international funds; the latest is an ERASMUS+ Program-International Credit Mobility 2018-2019 to support staff and student Mobility between University of Balamand and the University of Oulu.

Dr Estephane research has been and is still focused on trending Chemical Engineering fields. She mainly works on designing novel catalytic materials for the production of alternative fuels and the protection of the environment.

Dr Estephane has developed at the Chemical Engineering Department a new research axis which is an extremely challenging and interesting topic nowadays. She works in the waste valorization field turning waste cooking oils into biodiesel, and non-recycled plastic wastes into syngas. In addition, another field of interest is hydrogen production from renewable resources such as biogas and bio-alcohols via catalytic steam and dry reforming.

Finally, Dr Estephane is also interested in air pollution remediation, with a focus on the catalytic removal of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are emitted from industrial chimneys and car exhausts. All these topics fall under the umbrella of ”Heterogeneous Catalysis”. Dr Estephane has published a review book chapter, many conference proceedings and several peer reviewed papers in high impact factor international journals from several projects (BS projects, MS projects, MS theses and PhD theses), some of which were granted distinguished awards. Several projects were the result of bilateral collaborations between UOB and foreign universities such as Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale (France) and the University of Oulu (Finland).

1st place Award-Chemical Engineering-at the Order of Engineers competition for the project entitled: "Valorization of waste cooking oil into biodiesel using a novel catalytic material", 2019.
Most distinguished supervisor award for the project “Non Recycled Plastics Conversion into Fuels”in the “Materials and Nanotechnology” category attributed by LIRA (Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements Program, 14th Edition), 2018.
1st place Award for the project “Non Recycled Plastics Conversion into Fuels” in the “Materials andNanotechnology” category attributed by LIRA (Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements Program, 14th Edition), 2018.
3rd place Award for the project “Waste Vegetable Oil Valorization Into Biodiesel/Diesel», in the “Materials and Nanotechnology” category attributed by LIRA (Lebanese Industrial Research Achievements Program, 13th Edition), 2017.
PhD Excellence Award attributed by Claude Bernard University, 2008.
Best PhD students Poster Award - First International School on Applied Catalysis and IX Italian Seminar on Catalysis, 2007.