Naiara Fernández Hernández

Naiara is Principal Scientist of the Nutraceuticals & Bioactives Process Technology Lab of the Food and Health division at iBET since 2019.

She holds a Chemical Sciences degree from the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (Spain) and obtained her PhD in Industrial and Synthetic Chemistry with the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (Spain) in the area of Asymmetric Organic Synthesis in 2012. During her PhD, she contributed to the study of the activation of a,ß-unsaturated aldehydes via aminocatalysis in enantioselective processes.

Naiara joined iBET in 2017, as Senior Research Associate to co-manage a privately funded project, related to the valorization of microalgae biomass by the extraction of high-added value biocompounds and chemical and biological characterization of extracts.

Current Research: Currently she participates in national and European projects, mainly in the valorization of agro-food industry byproducts. Her work is focused on green extractions (high-pressure extractions, alternative solvents, process intensification), purification (physicochemical and chromatographic methods), chemical characterization, micro formulation, and human health-related natural compounds.

CV Highlights: (i) over 20 published papers; receiving a total of 316 citations (h-index 9), (ii) supervision of 3 PhD students (ongoing), 4 Master students (2 concluded), (iii) 9 oral communications and over 26 poster communications, (iv) participated in more than 10 national and international research projects, (v) participant of 2 COST actions (1 concluded), (vi) reviewer of several Elsevier and MDPI peer reviewed journals.