Maria Vivero-Lopez

Maria Vivero-Lopez has been a Sara Borrell Researcher at the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS, Spain) since February 2026, where she focuses on the development of polymeric biomaterials, multifunctional hydrogels, and nanocarriers for ocular drug delivery, including medicated contact lenses with antibiofilm properties. She earned her PhD in Pharmacy with Honours from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2022, specialising in nanocarriers and drug-device combination products for ocular delivery. She subsequently completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nottingham (UK), funded by the highly competitive Ramón Areces Foundation. She has undertaken research stays at national (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) and international (Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal; University of Nottingham, UK) institutions, and maintains active collaborations with research centers in Portugal, Italy, Brazil, and the UK. To date, she has published 25 articles in JCR-indexed journals (14 D1), including 4 as first author and 9 as second author, presented >30 contributions at international conferences, including 4 invited talks, and served as Guest Editor for several Q1 journals (>520 citations, h-index 12, Scopus). She has participated in 4 R&D projects funded by Xunta de Galicia, ISCIII and MICIU, and is co-inventor of a European patent licensed to a company. She has received multiple awards, including the Julia Polak European Doctorate Award (2023), the SPLC-CRS Best PhD Thesis Award (2024), and the CRS Member of the Year Award (2025). Maria has university teaching experience from her Xunta de Galicia Predoctoral Fellowship and as a part-time Lecturer, and is actively involved in student supervision and mentorship. She is an active member of the scientific community, serving as a reviewer for top-tier journals and participating in international scientific societies, including the Controlled Release Society (CRS), where she serves as Secretary of the Ocular Delivery Focus Group and the Young Scientist Committee; the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB); the Spanish Society of Industrial and Galenic Pharmacy (SEFIG); and the Society of Spanish Scientists in the UK (CERU), where she is an elected member of the Midlands working group. She has also contributed to the scientific and organizing committees of more than 10 national and international conferences, and participates in several outreach activities.