Tell us something about yourself:
I am an Associate Professor in Food Chemistry and Analysis at the Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition. I am focused on analytical method development to enhance food safety and authenticity. My focus includes the development of rapid and cost-efficient methods as well as bioactivity studies focusing on phytochemicals. Besides research work, I have been actively involved into the pedagogical activities including lectures, lab exercises and student supervision of all levels.
What do you like most about working as a scientist?
Troubleshooting is one of the most rewarding but also challenging tasks in our job. Each day offers new questions to explore. Curiosity, creativity, and continuous learning are necessary to face such challenges.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement(s) so far?
Completing my habilitation in the end of 2024 was a major milestone for my academic career. My participation in EU, https://www.papillons-h2020.eu, and national projects, https://old.starfos.tacr.cz/en/project/TQ03000738, contributed towards achieving significant results. Also, working with UCT students enabled me to developed education/pedagogical skills necessary for an academic.
Why did you decide to study at UCT Prague and do you enjoy living in Prague?
I first arrived in Prague during June 2017 to start my doctoral studies in UCT. This was through a Marie-Curie doctoral network. To participate in such a scheme you need to leave from your home country (am Greek). At this time, the group of Prof. Hajslova was advertising a position, which I applied for. The competition was high, more than 70 people applied for it. Hopefully, I managed to be selected and start working. Within 3 years, I managed to complete my Ph.D studies, a very hard but also rewarding journey. Based on my performance, our department decided to expand my contract and then everything started to click, became an Assistant Professor and now an Associate Professor. Prague is my favourite place, I truly enjoy living here. It's a great place to live with a family, green, historic, safe and in the heart of Europe.
Why do you prefer science to the commercial sphere?
I love the academic environment because of the diversity of challenges that one has to face. Considering, that we are working on applied sciences it's extremely interesting to develop practical solutions that will later on find commercial applications. Also, teaching gives you the opportunity to shape and inspire the next generation of chemists and scientists. But, I would like also to emphasise that we are not disconnected from the business world. We have commercial partners both both domestically (e.g., DYNEX) and internationally (e.g., Barilla) and we always try to give solutions to topical issues of high societal impact.
What motivated you to pursue such an intense and rapid progression in your academic career?
I am very curious and getting excited to be involved into new tasks/projects. I try to keep an open-mind and not focus on a single topic. Consistency is also another significant factor. You have to be resilient and try to keep up even if you don't understand why your experiment is not working. Credit goes also to my professors throughout my studies. Especially, after completed my bachelor thesis, my first proper experiment, I knew that I would like to find an academic job. Lastly, writing and publishing into international journals has been another factor that helped me progress. Acquiring results is not enough if you cannot present them and discuss towards other studies. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to publish anything or in any journal. It's definitely not a linear process, it has ups and downs, but the more you write the better you become at it. Eventually, this opens up great opportunities within the academic world.