Junior Week 2025
Novel Materials and Nanotechnology Group (IATA), Institute of Agrochemistry and Food technology, Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC)
Title of the event
From fibers to microdroplets and films: Innovations in polysaccharide engineering using electrohydrodynamic processes
Organizers
dr. Ana Kramar – EPNOE Junior Representative
Dr. Ana Kramar is a researcher in the field of fiber science and materials surface chemistry, with extensive experience in multidisciplinary research projects, biopolymers, and renewable materials. Her expertise includes nanomaterials, fibers, and films production, characterization, application, and the development of innovative products based on various polysaccharides and other biopolymers. She is a former MSCA COFUND fellow from the University Carlos III of Madrid (2021-2024), where her project contributed to advancements in polysaccharide-based materials for food packaging prepared by an innovative aerohydrodynamic process (solution blow spinning). Since 2024, she is a researcher in the Novel Materials and Nanotechnology group of the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology. She continued her research in developing sustainable, circular materials based on fibers for food packaging and agro-industrial applications. Her special focus is on deciphering the mechanisms of nanofibers formation from blends, as well as the interaction of biopolymeric components in blends and their influence on the final properties of the materials. Her multidisciplinary approach aims to bridge the gap between traditional and emerging technologies for fibers and film preparation from renewable polymers. She has been a member of EPNOE since 2022 and part of the EPNOE Junior Group since 2024.
Speakers
dr. Cristina Prieto, Tenured Scientist,
¨Shaping the Future of Biopolymeric Materials with Active Properties: Electrohydrodynamic Processing Breakthroughs¨
Dr. Cristina Prieto graduated in Chemical Engineering at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), received a MSc in Industrial Processes Engineering, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). She is a tenured scientist at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology and the Novel Materials and Nanotechnology Group (Spanish Council of Scientific Research). She has received the Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award, the Flucomp Best Thesis Award, the UCM University Entrepreneurship Award, V Cátedra Agrobank Award as well as several awards for the quality of her scientific communications. She has published more than 60 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, 5 licensed patents, 9 chapters, 1 book and more than 50 abstracts in international conferences. Her expertise involves emerging and conventional encapsulation technologies with application in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
dr. Soledad Roig Sanchez, postdoctoral Juan de la Cierva fellow,
“Benefits of nanocellulose as film support and additive towards more eco-friendly approaches”
Mattia Grumi, PhD student
“From Cashew Gum/Polyvinyl Alcohol Electrospun Nanofibers to High-Oxygen-Barrier Flexible Films for Sustainable Food Packaging”