After graduating in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bologna (Italy), M. Cristina Nicoli went on to conducting research at the University of Udine where she has been assistant professor for eight years. In 1998 she became associate professor in Food Technology at the University of Sassari. In 2005, she was appointed full professor at the University of Udine where she continues her research activity today. From 2009 to 2013, she was the coordinator of Food Science and Technology B.A.Sc and M.Sc courses of the University of Udine. From 2011 to 2012 she was the deputy head of the Agricultural Faculty. From 2016 to 2019 she is the deputy rector for research of the University of Udine.
In 2006 M.C. Nicoli, together with her team, was awarded the Italian National Innovation Prize with a project on acrylamide removal from foods.
She was responsible as PI or research unit leader in a number of regional and national projects and as national leader of European projects in FP6 and FP7. In 2011 she was the PI of a large scale three year lasting project “STAYFRESH” supported by AGER Agro-Alimentare e Ricerca, which is the major European non-profit organization in the agricultural and food sectors.
Her research activity mainly focused on chemical and physical factors affecting food functionality and stability, currently deals with the development of predictive food shelf life models, the exploitation of lipid structuring properties and the application of unconventional technologies for inducing bio-molecule structure modification or phase transitions. She is author of over 130 scientific papers published in international journals on food science and technology and several book chapters. She was also the editor of “Shelf life assessment of food” Taylor and Francis, 2012.
