Food Structure and Functionality Symposium Young Scientist Awardee

Marta Martínez, Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL), Spain

Marta Martínez is a tenured scientist at the Food Proteins group from the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL) (Madrid, Spain). In 2023, she received the National Research Award for Young Scientists in the area of Natural Resources Sciences and Technologies.

She developed her doctoral thesis in Food Science at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA), specializing in the development of bio-based materials for food packaging. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and the University of Queensland. Her research focused on studying the multi-scale structure of plant cell walls using advanced neutron and X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques, combined with microscopy, spectroscopy, and rheology. In 2017, she returned to Spain as a postdoctoral researcher, and in 2019 she secured a permanent position at CSIC.

Her scientific interests lie in the multi-scale structural study of food biomass sources, and the correlation with functional properties, to develop strategies aimed at a more efficient use of natural resources for food applications. Furthermore, she has extensive knowledge in scattering techniques, representing one of the leading scientists in applying these techniques in food science. Throughout her career, she has conducted stays at prestigious international centres such as KTH, Fraunhofer Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chalmers University and RISE, amongst others. The highly innovative nature of her research has led to 7 patents, one of which resulted in the creation of the startup ‘Aerofybers Technologies’. Proof of the disruptive nature of her research is her ERC Consolidator project PRODIGEST, which aims to understand the nanostructural changes undergone by food products upon gastrointestinal digestion.

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