João Henrique Zimnoch dos Santos holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Chemistry from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) (1985), with a specialization in organometallics from the University of Regensburg (1985), a master's degree in Chemistry from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (1989), a doctorate in Molecular Chemistry and Catalysis from the Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, 1993), postdoctoral studies at the Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (JAIST) (Ishikawa, 2000), and postdoctoral studies at McGill University (Montreal, 2001). Throughout this period, he acquired expertise in catalyst heterogenization, material characterization and surface analysis, and the development of nanostructured materials using sol-gel technologies. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry of UFRGS. Since 1995, he has been working on the development, characterization, and evaluation of catalytic systems for olefin polymerization, and more recently, sol-gel based materials for packaging applications. The systems investigated include heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta systems and supported metallocenes.