Affiliation

Chemical Engineering Universidad de Córdoba (UCO), Spain

Biography

Dr. Espinosa is Associate Professor PhD in the Chemical Engineering Area of the Universidad de Córdoba (UCO), in Bioproducts and Process Engineering group (BIOPREN). Graduated in Environmental Sciences in 2014 (Bachelor's Degree Extraordinary Award), he received his PhD in Biosciences and Agri-Food Sciences from the UCO in 2019 (Extraordinary PhD Award) under the funding of a FPU contract. Focus his research on the valorization of agri-food byproducts through biorefinery processes to obtain high-added value bioproducts and their application. Among the research developed, the use of bioactive compounds, nanocellulose and cellulose in applications in the paper industry, food packaging and biomedicine stands out. This research has resulted in the publication of 62 scientific articles (42 Q1/17 D1) with a Normalized impact (FWCI- Field-Weighted Citation Impact) of 1.76 (for the period 2019-2023). According to the Google Scholar database these articles have generated 2459 citations, obtaining an h-index of 26 and an i10 index of 42. Participation in > 50 international conferences through invited lectures, oral communications and posters and co-author 3 book chapters. Carried out different stays in national centers, such as the University of Girona (2015), and international ones, such as the LGP2 group of INP-Pagora in Grenoble, France (2017), and the RISE PFI research center in Trondheim, Norway (2018, 2019). Currently actively involved in 2 COST actions: CA20127 and CA22134. This broad international collaboration has resulted in 50% of the scientific papers published being the result of international collaborations and the published articles show a high scientific impact, placing 70.8% of the papers among the 25% of the most cited worldwide. The leadership in these works is evidenced by participation in 24% of them as first author and in 28% as corresponding author. The research developed is framed in different public research projects obtained in competitive concurrence. Among the research projects, his participation as coordinator of a European project in call PRIMA 2023, and PI in a regional public-private transfer project 2021 stands out. He has participated as research team in 5 projects (1 European, 3 national and 1 regional), and as a member of the working team in 1 national project.

It also carries out an intense work of knowledge transfer to society. In the transfer to the private sector, CIRCULARIZA was created as a spin-off of Universidad de Córdoba dedicated to the development of technologies for the valorization of agro-industrial waste to produce cellulose-based products as result of a national patent on the production of cellulose from horticultural waste. Participation in 16 research projects with national and international private companies/entities, acting in 3 of them as principal investigator. Participation as a member of the organizing and scientific committee of 2 international congresses (IWBLCM 2019 and 2023), as well as member of the scientific committee in CIADICYP 2022. Member of the editorial team of Molecules (MDPI) and reviewer for several journals from Springer (Cellulose), Elsevier (Carbohydrate Polymers, Industrial Crops and Products, etc.), American Chemical Society (ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Biomacromolecules, etc.) and MDPI (Bioengineering, Polymers, Foods, etc.). Reviewer of research projects for international entities: Research Projects of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) in 2019,2021 and 2023, PICT Projects of the Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (FONCYT) of Argentina in 2022, for the National Science Centre of Poland in 2023 and for the Junior Faculty Development programme of the Excellence in Africa initiative in 2024. Supervising 5 doctoral theses. Director of 8 Master's and 15 Bachelor's Thesis