Dr Maria Dimopoulou is a Senior Lecturer in Food Science and Technology and a Course Leader of MSc Food Science and Biotechnology as well as of MSc Food Processing Engineering in the School of Health & Life Sciences at Teesside University.

She joined the School of Health & Life Sciences in August 2020. Maria received her PhD in Chemical Engineering (2017) at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, which was aimed to provide a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the structure and physicochemical properties of biopolymers and find innovative and functional applications. In 2017 she joined the University of Huddersfield as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in collaboration with Lucozade Ribena Suntory and AB Agri company, where she focused on food wastes and sustainable resources. In 2019 she worked as a Part-time Lecturer in BSc, Food Nutrition and Health at the University of Huddersfield.

Her research interests focus on Food Sustainability and Food Waste Management and Valorisation. Her research work addresses questions about how valuable compounds and specifically biopolymers are being recovered from all these abundant waste streams and the investigation of novel functional products, processes, or commercial applications. Through the envisaged applications her research not only provides novel products with improved characteristics that may have a positive impact on human health but also contribute to a social and environmental positive impact by promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth.

Briefly, her research interests include (but not limited to) the following areas:

1) Isolation of novel biopolymers from food wastes and sustainable resources:
We are interested in discovering and validating innovative methods to exploit abundant waste from the food and beverages sector. Specifically, my research focuses on polysaccharide extraction from food wastes and agricultural resources by using conventional and green extraction processing technologies as well as the design and scale-up of extraction protocols. The Waste Management concept is a distinctive research problem and a universal issue that matters to every single person in the world.

2) Characterisation of extracted biopolymers from agricultural resources by using physicochemical techniques:
A crucial step before the investigation of potential novel functional products, processes, or commercial applications is to provide a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the molecular architecture and the physicochemical properties of extracted biopolymers from agricultural resources and food wastes. Therefore, my research expertise includes the utilisation of a variety of physicochemical and analytical techniques such as HPLC, GC-MS, NMR, DSC, TGA and many more, not only for the characterisation of the extracted material properties but also of the final applications.

3) Novel applications of polysaccharides derived from food wastes and agricultural resources:
Finding high-added-value uses of polysaccharides derived from food wastes and agricultural resources such as encapsulation of high-value flavour compounds from coffee waste, formulation of packaging films from citrus wastes, plant-based products as well as utilisation of coffee, baobab, and okra polysaccharides as natural emulsifying agents are only some key examples of my research expertise.

The development of functional products from sustainable resources is a key asset for both academia and industry as it extends our understanding of the physicochemical properties of these formulations and demonstrates new methodologies for the exploitation of waste streams.

Maria is currently the module leader of Food Sustainability.

She is also a module tutor in several other modules including Food Technology, Food Innovation and Product Development, Advanced Food Manufacturing, Food Processing Manufacturing and Advanced Research Project.

Current supervision of 2 PhD students (second supervisor), several MSc students and undergradulate students for their final year research projects.

PhD, Postdoctoral fellows or research associate positions will be advertised according to the availability.

Professional Bodies

• Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) ― Events organiser of IFST Northern Branch
• Technical Chamber of Greece (Chemical Engineer)