Karina Kawka is a final-year PhD Candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University in Canada, co-advised by Professors David Latulippe and Raja Ghosh. She received a bachelor’s degree in Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology from the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil. Her current research focuses on the development of scalable and cost-effective downstream processes for the purification of therapeutic viruses. The work is centered on applying membrane chromatography for the removal of host-cell impurities, but it also integrates the study of other unit operations and the use of process simulation tools for the economic analysis of complete virus manufacturing processes. For her work, Karina received a 2021 Student Fellowship Award from the North American Membrane Society and the 2021 AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award in the Bioseparations Area.