FRANCISCO JAVIER
RODRIGUEZ MEJIAS

I have gotten my Bachelor in Chemistry in July 2016 from the University of Cadiz and the Chemical Sciences and Technology Master in September 2017 from the UNED University (Madrid, Spain). I have obtained the Extraordinary Prize for the best academic record during my Master. I joined the Institute of Biomolecules of the University of Cádiz as an R&D Support Technician within the Youth Guarantee Program of the Andalusian Region until June 2018. Subsequently, I joined the group of Allelopathy in Higher Plants and Microorganisms, from the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cadiz, where I began my PhD with a Research Staff Training Grant (FPI-UCA). The main topic of my PhD was the design of new fully organic encapsulation agents and their application in the pharmacological and agrochemical fields. I finished it in July 2021, with an outstanding cum laude mark, and with the distinction of European doctor after I developed a research stay at the Jacobs University of Bremen (Germany) for 3.5 months. Currently, I have published 22 articles concerning new formulation techniques for natural products, all of them collected in JCR Q1 and Q2, as well as 2 patents related to new encapsulation systems, and 1 book chapter. One of these articles has been awarded as the most read between 2018-2019 by the Wiley editorial board. In addition, I have attended four research conferences providing oral and poster presentations, as well as providing results to more than 25 conferences. Recently, I have been awarded the Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis Dissertation 2020-2021 by the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) in the Andalusian Region, and also the same prize by the University of Cadiz in the topic Biomolecules. In addition, I have been awarded with the second place in the international award “Dr. Mariola Macias Award” from the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) for the best contribution in the science of natural products in the year 2021-2022. Recently, I got the award for the Best Young Researcher Award 2023 by the Natural Products Specialized Group of the RSEQ. My teaching experience is broad. I have been involved in chemistry teaching for engineers, chemists and enologist during my work in the Organic Chemistry Department at the University of Cadiz, and I got experience in teaching the uses of natural products in pharmacy for undergraduate and master studies in pharmacy at the University of Innsbruck. In addition, I had supervised three BSc thesis and one MSc thesis at the University of Cadiz. I am the Regional Representative of the Iberian Region for the PSE, a Member of the Quality Assurance Commission of the Biomolecules Doctoral Program at the University of Cadiz, and I have added experience in management after joining the Electronic Journals Commission of the same University for 2 years. I have worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Allelopathy group at the University of Cádiz for 6 months and I have been a Margarita-Salas NextGenerationEU postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Pharmacognosy at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) for two years. Attending to R&D projects, I’m involved in two national projects as part of the research team (200.000,00€ and 133.100,00€), one project from the Andalusian autonomous community (143.704,00€), one COST project from the EU (CA22102 – 500.000,00€) and I’m the PI of project managed by Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (100.000,00€).