Four Questions for MAE's Patricia Santos
Having earned her undergraduate degree in applied sciences in engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering, Patricia Santos has returned to her alma mater—this time as an associate professor of professional practice for the packaging engineering program. Citing her deep love of teaching as the driving force to her work, she is excited to help actively grow the packaging engineering program and create even more impactful opportunities for our students.
Four Questions for Associate Professor of Pacakging Engineering Patricia Santos
What fuels your passion for packaging engineering?
Municipal waste streams are dominated by materials that were never designed for recovery, reuse, or circularity. As a result, packaging becomes a visible symbol of both consumer convenience and the environmental burdens created by existing end-of-life outcomes for packaging.
Packaging engineering offers a unique intersection of creativity, technical rigor, and environmental responsibility. It's a discipline where small innovations can have large-scale impacts, such as reducing waste, conserving resources, and reshaping how society interacts with packaging systems. My belief, and what fuels my passion, is that packaging can evolve from a contributor to the waste problem into an important element in delivering safe products without damage which helps to prevent the global problem of food waste and product loss.
What is your current research focus and who is most likely to benefit from its results?
My current research focuses on quantifying the environmental impacts of healthcare practices through life cycle assessment, with a particular emphasis on the growing problem of plastic waste in clinical environments. The U.S. health care sector accounts for nearly 10 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. As part of a multidisciplinary team, I am evaluating the differences in resource use, waste generation, and environmental burdens associated with intravenous versus oral antibiotic delivery. This work connects the amount and types of waste produced including single-use plastics, pharmaceutical packaging, and ancillary medical supplies to the broader environmental impacts of each treatment pathway.
In parallel, our team is studying medical waste generation within clinical settings to understand how routine care decisions made by clinicians directly influence the amount of medical waste generated.
What are you looking forward to as a new faculty member?
I am most looking forward to fully engaging with the Rutgers community and building collaborations across programs and departments, as well as deepening our industry partnerships.
Together, we will shape a curriculum that meets the needs of today, one that is aligned with emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and advanced automation, incorporates meaningful experiential learning into the classroom, and helps mold a workforce prepared to face the rapidly evolving landscape of packaging engineering.
What do you like to do when you're not being an engineer?
I enjoy spending time in the arts, such as going to concerts, exploring museums, and seeing plays. These creative experiences keep my mind open to new ideas. And you will often see me at football and basketball games, proudly wearing scarlet red while rooting for my alma mater.
