MarÍa De Los Desamparados LÓpez Rubio

Biography

Agronomical Engineer by the Polytechnical University of Valencia, Spain (UPV), with a Master in Food Science and Technology (Ghent University, Belgium) and a PhD in Food Science and Technology (UPV, Valencia, Spain). I did my PhD at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology, investigating the effects of various food preservation technologies on the structure and properties of polymeric materials used in food packaging. During the predoctoral period I got familiarized with potent characterization tools, such as synchrotron radiation (I did several short stays at the Hasylab, Hamburg, Germany), providing me an unusual profile in the Food Science area. The predoctoral period was completed with another short stay at the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), where in collaboration with Prof. Hedenqvist,

Research Interest

My research interests are mainly focused on understanding the relationships between structure and functionality of food and materials for a rational design of materials with improved functionality. My research work has resulted in more than 80 SCI publications in high impact journals of the area, 9 patents (2 of them licensed), 15 book chapters, 10 dissemination publications, more than 100 conference contributions and I have been co-editor of a book and a special issue about bio-based polymers for food packaging in the SCI journal “Journal of Applied Polymer Science”. Moreover, I have participated in 27 publicly financed research projects (being responsible researcher in some of them), 11 research contracts with private companies (being responsible researcher in 5 of them) and I am actively collaborating with a number of national and international research groups.