From Madrid, engineer Cecilia Belén Laskowski Orlandi shares a glimpse of her life in the Spanish capital, where she’s currently working on her thesis focused on global warming mitigation, thanks to a doctoral scholarship awarded by the Roberto Rocca Foundation.

Cecilia comes from a true family of engineers—which is no exaggeration. Her dad’s an engineer, her mom’s an engineer, and all three of her brothers are engineers too. So it comes as no surprise that she followed the same path, earning her degree in civil engineering in 2020 from the San Juan Bosco National University of Patagonia (UNPSJB) in her hometown of Comodoro Rivadavia. “It was pretty hard to escape math in a house like that!” she says with a laugh.

But her educational journey started long before university, and came with its own unique twists and turns. “My dad was always involved in the oil & gas industry and worked at Tecpetrol, so we moved around a lot,” Cecilia explains. “We lived in Buenos Aires, in Salta, and also in several Venezuelan cities, like Casigua, El Cubo, and Maracaibo, among others. I did primary school all over the place.” Eventually, her family returned to Comodoro Rivadavia, “where I was able to settle down and finish high school in one place!” she recalls, today aged 27.

After completing her undergraduate studies, Cecilia knew she wasn’t done learning. One of her professors, who taught at both UNPSJB and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), had just secured funding from the European Union for a research project on geological carbon dioxide storage. He suggested the topic to her, along with a few others, and also introduced the idea of pursuing a PhD at UPM. That’s how the opportunity began to take shape.

Cecilia was intrigued by the topic and soon found herself working between the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and the Geotechnical Laboratory at the Center for Public Works Studies and Experimentation (CEDEX). This is a space where both undergraduate and graduate students can conduct research and use state-of-the-art facilities. “At UPM, I focused on analyzing the data, and at the CEDEX Geotechnical Lab, I carried out the physical tests,” she explains.

During that first trip to Spain in 2022—where she stayed at a convent residence—she learned about the Roberto Rocca Doctoral Scholarship program. “I did the interview virtually, from here in Madrid,” she recalls. “And on July 14, my birthday, I got the message that I’d been selected. It was the best gift I could have received!”

If it hadn’t been for the Roberto Rocca scholarship—what she calls her birthday gift—Cecilia would have had to return to Argentina, as the EU-funded project had a fixed end date. “I had no other way to finance another trip to Madrid to continue my testing, and I needed to be here because of the lab equipment. The scholarship made it possible for me to keep going with my research,” she explains.

This wasn’t the first time Cecilia had received support from the Roberto Rocca Foundation. “I’ve been receiving scholarships from the Foundation since 2012—starting in high school, then all through university, and now for my doctorate as well. Being able to count on that kind of support while doing something you love is such a gift,” she says.

“Through my role on the Roberto Rocca Fellowship Program committee, I’ve had the chance to follow Cecilia’s journey since 2022, when we decided to support her doctoral research,” says Marco Tivelli, Chief Technology Officer at Tecpetrol, who is closely involved in her work. “From the start, I’ve been impressed by her drive and her ability to move steadily toward her experimental goals. Her research on CO₂ sequestration in depleted oil and gas fields aligns perfectly with the work we’re doing at Tecpetrol and within the Energy Transition Unit. It’s a perfect match. Our hope is that one day she’ll join Tecpetrol and bring all that expertise into our teams.”

The research

Global warming happens because large amounts of carbon dioxide get trapped in the atmosphere, heating the planet. One of the solutions science has developed is to capture that CO₂ at source and inject it deep underground into rock formations with the right properties. Depleted oil and gas fields, which have already been explored by the industry, are among the most promising candidates for this kind of storage.

“For my thesis, we chose to study the Banco Verde layer of the Salamanca Formation in the Gulf of San Jorge basin,” Cecilia explains enthusiastically. “We’re analyzing whether this rock could safely store carbon dioxide by studying how it reacts with the gas. First we carry out a geomechanical characterization in the lab, and then we use numerical simulation software to model how it would behave over the long term.”

Cecilia plans to submit and defend her thesis in the coming months. Looking ahead, she hopes to work in a field connected to her research, or in renewable energy. “It’s a topic I’ve always been passionate about.”