María José Alonso is Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Her lab has pioneered numerous discoveries in the field of nanomedicine, notably in the area a vaccination, transmucosal drug delivery and precision medicine in oncology.
She has coordinated consortia financed by the WHO, the Gates Foundation and the European Commission and has authored more than 315 scientific contributions with H factor: 104. She is the inventor of 23 patent families, most of them licensed to industry and she has participated in 3 start-up ventures. She has been among the TOP TEN in Pharmacology ((Times Higher Education international ranking, 2010) 2010) and in the “Power List” of the most influential researchers in the field of Biopharmaceuticals (The Medicine Maker)
She has hold high responsibilities as Vicerrector of Research and Innovation, Trusty of the Spanish Research Council and Adviser to the Ministries of Sciences and Innovation and Health. She si now a member of the Council of the Spanish Agency of Research.
She was President of the CRS in 2018-19 and she is Editor-in-Chief of the Drug Delivery and Translational Research, an official journal of the CRS. She is part of the editorial board of 12 journals.
She has received 55 awards, among them the “National Research Award”, considered as the highest distinction from the Spanish Government, the Jaume I Award and the Founders, WIS and Outstanding Service Awards of the CRS, Inc.
She is a member of 5 Academies in Spain and of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium and of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM). She was awarded with an “Honoris Causa” doctorate by the University of Nottingham.