Patricia obtained her MSc from Leiden University (The Netherlands), studying the selective reduction of nitrosobenzene over mixed manganese oxides. She obtained her PhD from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) studying TS-1 zeolite synthesis and catalytic applications. Following a post-doc at Shell research centre (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), she learned all about TEM during a long post-doc period at the NCHREM (Delft, The Netherlands). Subsequently she was appointed assistant professor at the Chemical Engineering department (catalysis engineering group) at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands). She came to South Africa in 2015 as SARChI Chair Nanomaterials for Catalysis.
She has always enjoyed travelling and has held many short-term visiting scientist positions throughout her career.

Her research focusses on heterogeneous catalysis, especially catalyst characterisation. She is an expert in high resolution transmission electron microscopy and is one of the pioneers in gas-phase in situ TEM.