Merichel Plaza

Merichel Plaza carried out her PhD studies at the Institute of Industrial Fermentations (IFI) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) from January 2007 to December 2010. She defended her PhD thesis on 17 December 2010 at the Autonomous University of Madrid, entitled “Search for New Natural Functional Ingredients from Algae”. During her doctoral studies, she completed a three-month predoctoral research stay in the group of Prof. Borivoj Klejdus at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry (Brno, Czech Republic), where she expanded her expertise in the extraction, analysis, and identification of algal secondary metabolites. After obtaining her PhD, in February 2011 she joined the Department of Chemistry, Division of Analytical Chemistry, at the Centre for Analysis and Synthesis of Lund University (Sweden), as a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Swedish Research Council FORMAS, under the supervision of Prof. Charlotta Turner (“Green Technology Group”). Her research focused on the enzymatic modification of phenolic compounds and the evaluation of their activity using environmentally sustainable technologies. After completing her two-year postdoctoral fellowship, she was appointed as a researcher at Lund University, where she worked for five years and three months. During this period, she participated in several research projects. She also participated actively in the European SUSFOOD ERANet project, collaborating with the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), the University of Huddersfield (UK), the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), and the University of Lincoln (New Zealand). In addition, she took part in a project funded by the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), in collaboration with the University of Rhodes and the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), within the project “Towards sustainable analytical technologies for value addition to biomass”. During this period, she initiated her own research line focused on analytical methods for medium- to high-molecular-weight compounds, particularly non-extractable polyphenols. In April 2016, she joined the University of Alcalá (UAH) as a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación researcher in the group of (Micro)-Separation Techniques led by Prof. María Luisa Marina, within the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. This contract was extended until April 2018. She then held a postdoctoral contract at UAH (April–November 2018), followed by a “Talent Retention” Assistant Professor position from November 2018 to November 2023. She subsequently served as Visiting Professor until February 2024, and on 1 March 2024 she was appointed Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at UAH. During this period, she has developed an independent research line focused on the extraction, characterization, and analysis of bioactive compounds from agri-food by-products using advanced analytical methodologies.

She is co-author of 60 JCR-indexed scientific articles, 3 additional peer-reviewed articles, 13 book chapters, and 9 conference proceedings. Her scientific impact is reflected in an h-index of 36 (Scopus, May 2026) and more than 5,939 citations. She has been included in Stanford University’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientists list (2019-2025). She is co-inventor of an international PCT patent licensed to Beacon Biomedicine S.L. She has participated in 33 research projects, including one European project, and has been Principal Investigator of several competitive national and regional projects, including those funded by the Community of Madrid (Ref. CM/JIN/2021-023 and CM/JIN/2019-033), the University of Alcalá (Ref. EPU-INV-UAH/2023/001 and PIUAH21/CC-041):, the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Ref. SBPLY/21/180501/000217), and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ref. TED2021-131011B-I00). Her research results have been presented at 50 scientific conferences, with a total of 84 contributions, including 38 oral communications. She holds the I3 Certificate (Programme for the Promotion of Researcher Career Development) and three consecutive six-year research evaluations (2007-2024). She has received several awards, including the “Young Researcher Award in Experimental Sciences” from the University of Alcalá (2018). She was also finalist for the José Antonio García Domínguez Award for best oral presentation at the IX Meeting of the Spanish Society of Chromatography and Related Techniques (2009). Her article “Screening for bioactive compounds from algae” was recognized as a Top Cited Article (2010-2011). In addition, she has actively participated in the organisation and coordination of scientific outreach activities at CSIC, Lund University, and the University of Alcalá.