For her work on using biomass for environmental remediation, Soetaredjo was awarded the 2017 Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World. In her research, Soetaredjo converts biomass and clay into absorbents that can be used to remove hazardous compounds such as antibiotics, heavy metals and dyes from wastewater. She is also in the process of patenting a method using Fenton reagents that can be used to degrade 98 percent of the pollutants in wastewater.

(Photo: Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya)