Dr. Ioannis Mourtzinos was born in 1979 in Volos. He received a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry (2001) and a master’s degree in Food Chemistry and Technology (2003) from the Department of Chemistry of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a PhD (2008) from Harokopion University in Athens. His PhD thesis, entitled “Protection and controlled release of microencapsulated nutrients in biopolymer structures”, involved the formulation of health-beneficial components from plant materials, with the goal of incorporating them into foods and producing functional foods. All his postgraduate studies were completed with a scholarship from the IKY. He carried out postdoctoral research at the National Center for Natural Sciences Research (NCRC) “Demokritos”. He has been re-educated abroad at Ghent University (Belgium), Corvinus University (Hungary) and at the Institute National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (Paris), attending intensive course programs (Socrates Intensive Courses) on issues related to food safety as well as their impact on health.
He worked for 5 years in the industry, as head of the R&D department at PEPSICO-IVI, as director of the R&D department at APIVITA, as a researcher (R&D Expert) of the R&D department at CHR-HANSEN in France, as well and as head of the Quality Control and Quality Assurance department at APIVITA company. During his tenure at PEPSICO-IVI, he was a member of the team that developed the first clean-label soft drink in Greece, in which a conventional additive was replaced with rosemary extract. In APIVITA he was the main inventor of producing cosmetics’ raw material based on propolis. The raw material, the protective action of which has been studied against toxic environmental factors, is today a component of almost all the company’s products. In 2014, after election, he was appointed to the Department of Agriculture of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki as Lecturer with the subject “Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis of Foods”, in January 2017 as an Assistant Professor and in November 2021 as an Associate Professor. He teaches the subjects of “Food Chemistry” and “Food Analysis” in the Department of Agriculture. He teaches in the master’s programs “Food Chemistry and Nutrition” and “Food Legislation” of the Department of Food Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture, AUTH, as well as at the Master’s Programs of the International University of Thessaloniki and the University of the Aegean. He has taught by invitation at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, at the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the University of Technology in Cyprus and at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, in Thailand. In May 2022 he taught in Chios in the academic program “Mediterranean Nutrition & Food Systems” to students from the University of California Berkeley, America. Also, from June 2022, he is secretary of the board of directors of the Interdisciplinary Center for Agri-Food (KEAGRO) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
His research interests include the extraction of bioactive components of aromatic and medicinal plants as well as by-products of the food industry with “green” techniques and solvents as well as the study of their use as natural food additives (e.g. antioxidants, preservatives, colorants , flavor enhancers). In his research he uses the following techniques: High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrophotometer with Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Analyzer (LC-QTOF-MS), Gas Chromatography (GC-MS, GC-FID), Nuclear Magnetic Spectroscopy Coordination (1H,13C-NMR), Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Texture Analyzer, Electrophoresis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Spray-Drying, Freeze-Drying.
His research work has been presented in Greek and international conferences and has been published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals (citations: ~ 2100, h-index: 20). He is the head of the AGROFOODTEAM research group, which consists of undergraduate and postgraduate students, PhD candidates as well as post-doctoral researchers. Also, he is the Principal Investigator of programs that have been funded by competitive NSRF programs and by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.). The research team has undertaken research projects of domestic and foreign companies, some of which have led to patents resulting in the development of highly innovative foods and cosmetics. In September 2022, the submitted research proposal in collaboration with the University of the West of England received funding from The Royal Society.
