María del Carmen Garrigós Selva, Chemistry PhD (2003). Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry in the University of Alicante (Spain) from 2008. Current head of the Polymer and Nanomaterials Analysis Research Group. She currently has got four positive evaluations from the National Committee of Evaluation of the Research Activities dependent from the Spanish Government. She has participated in 43 research competitive research projects with public financing (17 of them as Principal Investigator), being the most relevant 5 consecutive projects financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (2009-2024) as well as four international projects under the H-2020 calls (two of them as the Principal Investigator) from 2016 to 2022. In addition, she has participated in more than 130 research and innovation projects with different national and international companies, most of them as Principal Investigator.

She has been author of 2 books on Food Analysis and co-author in 17 book chapters in biopolymers, additives analysis and development of methods for food analysis. Moreover, she has participated in 25 publications on academical research. Author or co-author of 93 research papers published in journals in Analytical Chemistry, Food Technology and Polymer Science, 67 of them published in journals in the first quarters of the respective topics. The total number of citations is 3226, accounting for 457 citations per year in the last 5-year span and h index 32. She has participated in the scientific committees in many international conferences, particularly in the International Conference on Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers (BIOPOL), where she was co-chair in the 8th edition. She has supervised 5 PhD thesis presentations and she is currently supervising 4 more to be presented in the next future.

Her main research areas are:

• Synthesis and characterization of polymers and biopolymers.
• Environmentally-friendly additives in polymers.
• Active packaging. Natural antioxidants/antimicrobials for active packaging.
• Valorisation of agro-food wastes and by-products. Extraction and encapsulation of active compounds.
• Development and validation of sustainable extraction methods based on microwaves and ultrasounds.
• Synthesis of metallic nanoparticles by sustainable methods.
• Food chemical and nutritional analysis. Functional foods. Authentication analysis and frauds detection.
• Biodegradation and compostability of biodegradable polymers and sustainable composites