In 1988, Dr. Maria Teresa Rodriguez Estrada obtained her B.Sc.
degree on Food Engineering at the Universidad Autonoma
Metropolitana (Mexico City, Mexico).
In 1989, she worked, for six moths, as quality control inspector
at the chocolate factory “Cocoas y Chocolates La Corona S.A. de
C.V. (Mexico City, Mexico).
During 1989/90, she worked as sensory evaluation consultant and
statistics analyst at a consulting agency for the food industry
(Eric V. Martínez Rubalcaba Consultants, Mexico).
During 1989/90, she also worked as research assistant in the
“Enology and Fermented Food” research group at the Universidad
Autonoma Metropolitana (Mexico City, Mexico). In this same period,
she was teaching assistant for the “Fermented Food” and “Sensory
Evaluation” courses of the B.Sc. degree on Food Engineering at the
same university.
During 1990/93, she worked as research assistant in the “Food
Processing” research group at the University of Massachusetts
(Amherst , USA). In 1993, she obtained her M.S. degree on Food
Science at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, USA).
In 1997, she received her Ph.D. degree on Food Biotechnology at
the Università degli Studi di Firenze (associated University
center: Università di Bologna).
During 1997/98, she was contracted university lecturer of the “
Food Technology” course of the University Diploma on Animal
Production (specialization on Aquaculture and Mariculture) at the
Veterinary Faculty of the Università di Bologna.
In 1998, she obtained a two-year postdoctoral fellowship awarded
by the Università di Bologna.
In 2000, she became Assistant Professor at the Agricultural
Sciences Faculty of the Università di Bologna and she was awarded
tenure position as Assistant Professor on 2004.
In 2014, she obtained the national qualification as Associate
Professor in the AGR/15 sector (qualification 2012).
Since 2004/05, she teaches “ Technology of Oils, Fats and their
Derivatives” (B.Sc. in Food Technology, and Second Level B.Sc. in Food Science and Technology) and Food Chemistry (Second Level B.Sc. in Sanitary and
Biological Sciences, and Second Level B.Sc. in Health Biology) at the Università di
Bologna. Since 2015, she also teaches the Module on "Technology of Meat and Meat Products" in the course on "Food Industry and Technology of Products of Animal Origin" (B.Sc. in Animal Production) and the Module on "Technology of Meat and Meat Products" in the course on "Food Technology: Dairy, Meat and Fishery Products"(Second Level B.Sc. in Safety and Quality in Animal Production).
She is also coordinator of 8 Erasmus Mobility
Programs with the following European universities: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the
Agricultural University of Wroclaw (Poland), the Universidad
Católica San Antonio de Murcia (Spain) and the Universidad de
Valencia-Burjassot (Spain), University of Hohenheim (Germany), Universidad del Pais Vasco (Spain), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Adana Science and Technology University (Turkey).
She is advisor and co-advisor of more than 68 B.Sc.
thesis and 12 Ph.D. thesis. She has participated as
member of 7 European Ph.D. Dissertation Committees and two
International Ph.D. Dissertation Committees (Instituto Tecnológico
de Veracruz (Mexico)).
The research activity of Dr. Rodriguez Estrada is focused on
food lipids, in particular on their composition and
their degradations caused by processing and preservation.
Part of her work includes lipid analysis of different food matrices
(meat products, dairy products, edible oils, cocoa butter,
bakery products, eggs and organic food) and functional,
enriched food products (sterols, antioxidants, vitamins);
she has also developed several chromatographic methods to
identify and quantify components that are potentially harmful for
human health (such as sterol oxidation products). Most of
her research activity is related to lipid oxidation in food and
food emulsions, being particularly focused on lipid minor
components (such as sterols, tocopherols, etc.). She has also
set-up analytical methods for the evaluation of volatile
compounds in fermented products (meat and dairy
products) and in agro-food waste subjected to anaerobic
digestion, as well as for the certification of lipid reference
materials used for the evaluation of the efficiency performance of
the analytical systems. She has also set-up analytical
techniques for the evaluation of lipid and liposoluble
compound absorption in diverse tissues, as well as for the
determination of the changes induced by digestion processes
in the absorption of sterols and their oxidation products.
In 2000, Dr. Rodriguez Estrada did a 3-month research stage at
the Food Science Department of the University of Massachusetts
(USA). In 2003, she did a 3-month research stage at the Food
Science Department of the Universidad de Barcelona (Spain).
Since 1994, she has participated at several National and
Regional research projects, such as MIUR ex quota 60%, ex quota
40% (COFIN), CNR, CNR-RAISA, CNR AGENZIA 2000-PROGETTO GIOVANI
RICERCATORI, FIRB, FISR, PRIN, PRRIITT-SIQUAL AND SITEIA-SIQUAL. Nowadays she participes to the project PRIN 2015 “Olive phenols as multifunctional bioactives for healthier foods: evaluation of simplified formulation to obtain safe meat products and new foods with higher functionality" and the project POR-FERS "FOOD CROSSING DISTRICT- Industrial symbiosis: two new products from food by-products and a map of the relative circular economies in the Emilia Romagna region".
She has
also participated at two projects supported by the European
Union (UE SMT4-CT97-2144 (DG 12-EGAA) and UE-STREP
FOOD-CT-2004-007020) and one certification study and two
validation studies coordinated by the Joint Research
Center-Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements
(IRMM) (Geel, Belgium). Nowadays she participes to two H2020 European projects: "ECOPROLIVE" (Ecofriendly processing system for the full exploitation of the olive health potential in products of added value) and "PLOTINA" (Promoting gender balance and inclusion in research, innovation and training).
She has several scientific collaborations at international
level (Universidad de Barcelona (Spain), Universidad de
Valencia (Spain), Universidad de Navarra (Spain), University of
Massachusetts (USA), Instituto Tecnológico de Veracruz (Mexico),
University of Hohenheim (Germany), l'University of Agricultural
Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca (Rumania),
l'Universidad de Concepcion (Chile), l'Universidad Tecnologica
Nacional (Argentina), University of Sao Paolo (Brazil) and the
Centro Tecnológico de la Industria Cárnica de la Rioja (Alesón, La
Rioja, Spain).
In addition, Dr. Rodriguez Estrada has is scientific responsible
of several collaborations with Italian small- and middle-size
agro-food industries (dairy products, meat products, vegetable
oils, vegetable products).
She is co-author of more than 100 publications in national and
international journals (more than 90 reported by Scopus), 11 book/encyclopedy chapters (international edition)
and 1 book chapter (national edition).
She is also reviewer of several international journals
(Animal, Anal. Bioanal. Chem., Brit. Poultry Sci., Chem.
Phys. Lipids, Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Tech., Food Chem., Food
Control, Ital. J. Food Sci., J. Agric. Food Chem., J.
Chromatogr. A., J. Food Comp. Anal., J. AOAC
Int., J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., J. Sci. Food Agric., Meat Sci.,
Poultry Sci., Riv. Ital. Sost. Grasse, Scient. Res. Essays,
Sensors) .
