García-Herrera, P

Biography

TEACHING CAREER:
Graduate in Pharmacy with the Victoria Eugenia Rodríguez-García award (2006), Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences (2008), PhD in Pharmacy from the Complutense University of Alcalá with a European Mention and CUM LAUDE qualification (2014). FPI-UCM predoctoral fellowship (2009-2014), with teaching responsibilities in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UCM, collaborating with a total of 180 hours in practical teaching of the Degrees of Pharmacy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics and Food Science and Technology. Accreditation for the position of Assistant Professor Doctor (2014).
Master for the Training of Secondary Education and Baccalaureate Teachers (2016). Professor of Chemistry and Earth and Environmental Sciences in the university access course for over 25 and 45 year-olds at the Autonomous University of Madrid (2016-2019). Professor of Secondary Education and Baccalaureate at Norfolk School; subjects of Biology, Biology and Geology, Chemistry and Scientific Culture (2016-2019).
Associate Professor in the Nutrition and Food Science Dpt. at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the UCM since July 2024, previously occupying a position as Assistant Professor since 2019. Teaching in the degrees of Pharmacy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Food Science and Technology and Double Degree in Pharmacy and Human Nutrition and Dietetics, as well as in the Master's Degree in R&D&I in Food Industry. Total teaching hours given to date: 1319.5h. Participation in 7 Teaching Innovation projects (2013-present), being IP in one of them and 4 ApS projects, being IP in one of them. Results of two teaching quality evaluations with POSITIVE and VERY POSITIVE ratings. Conducting courses for teaching improvement during all academic years.

RESEARCH CAREER:
Collaboration grant MEC in the Dpt. Nutrition and Bromatology II to study the texture profile of different varieties of rice. Results of this research reported in the Complutense Conference of Undergraduate Students. The topic of the master thesis was the study of fiber content in samples of tomato fiber. Results reported in an international congress and one paper in a Q1 scientific journal (Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies). UCM-FPI pre-doctoral scholarship (2009), Thesis tittle: “Wild plants for traditional consumption in Spain. Characterization of its nutritional value and estimation of its antifungal activity”. In this period the candidate learned different technics and methodologies of analysis (proximate composition, HPLC and AAS technics). Pre-doctoral research stays: Instituto del Frio, ICTAN-CSIC, Madrid (3 months 2012, 3 months-2014). In the first one, she studied the carotenoids content in young shoots and in the second one she studied the anthocyanin profile in red fruit drinks by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS-QTOF. One international stay was realized in the Istituto di Science e delle produzioni Alimentari, ISPA, Bari-Italy (3 months, 2012) where the phenolic compounds and antifungal activity of wild edible plants were analyzed. 8 papers in recognized scientific journals (Q1/Q2), 3 book chapters (Springer and Wiley eds.) and participation in 14 national and international congress were obtained from this predoctoral period. In 2014 the PhD mention was obtained. Assistant professor (2019) and Associate professor (July of 2024 until now) in the Complutense de Madrid University. Since then, her research lines are focused on the study of bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity and bioactivities of different fruits and vegetable drinks. To improve her knowledge the candidate realized 2 postdoctoral research stays: Instituto de Investigación de Ciencias de la Alimentación, CIAL-CSIC, Madrid (4 months-2021) and the Centro de Investigaçao de Monthana, CIMO, Bragança-Portugal (2 months-2022), where she worked with cellular models and studied the antioxidant capacity, toxicity and antimicrobial activity in different fruits. From this last period, 7 publications in outstanding scientific journals (Q1/Q2), 1 book chapter (Elsevier ed.) and participation in 19 national and international congresses were performed. Throughout her research career she participated in 9 competitive research projects and 3projects/contracts company-university OTRI, being IP in one of them (2024). Guest Editor in several special issues (Foods-MDPI Journal) and participates as reviewer in scientific journals. Member of scientific committees and moderation of conferences. Participation in scientific dissemination activities such as Science Week or European Researchers Night leading these proposals on 2 occasions. From 2008 she is member of the research group ALIMNOVA-New foods: scientific, technological and social aspects, and from 2023 is member of the Spanish Society of Horticultural Sciences. She has recognized a “six-year research period”. Codirection of 2 doctor doctoral theses with topic nature additives from wild fruits and vegetable drinks