Principal investigator
Research groups
Email
plopez@iim.csic.es
Telephone
986 23 19 30 ext. 438000
I hold an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela (2000) and an industrial PhD in Food Science and Technology from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden (2011). I have worked as a corporate researcher at Unilever R&D in the Netherlands and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Queensland (Australia) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden). I managed the Food Material Science Area at Research Institutes of Sweden (Sweden), and in 2022, I returned to Spain with a competitive Ramón y Cajal contract to join the University of Santiago de Compostela.
My research focuses on the relationship between the structure and the technofunctional properties of ingredients and foods, particularly the impact of processing conditions on cell wall polysaccharides of raw materials and by-products of plant (cereals, fruits and vegetables) and aquatic origin. In recent years, I am leading several projects investigating the physicochemical properties of algae, exploring their potential as a source of sustainable ingredients.
The knowledge generated from my research is applied to design foods with improved organoleptic and nutritional properties, as well as biomaterials for various technological applications. My work sits at the interface between Food and Material Sciences and involves the use of spectroscopic, microscopic, and rheological analyses.