Maria do Carmo Martins Sobral is a Civil Engineer from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), with a specialisation in urban and regional planning from Universitat Dortmund, Germany, and a Master’s in Civil Engineering (Water Resources) from the University of Waterloo, Canada. She holds a PhD in Environmental Planning from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and completed postdoctoral research in environmental technology at TU Berlin and in water resources management at UNESCO-IHE, the Netherlands. She has been a Visiting Researcher at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Sobral is a member of various academies, including the National Academy of Engineering (ANE), and serves as a Full Professor at UFPE in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She has held leadership roles in organisations like Capes and government agencies in Pernambuco, specialising in environmental impact assessment, water quality, and sustainable development planning.