doctor of engineering
priority research area: MoleculeTech
Scientific achievements
Dr Eng. Magdalena Efenberger-Szmechtyk from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences at Lodz University of Technology is a specialist in food microbiology, microbiological food safety, and natural food preservation methods. Her scientific output includes 20 publications, which have received 1,044 citations, and her h-index is 12. She is a co-author of four patents. In 2021, she defended her doctoral dissertation with distinction, for which she received the POLMOS Żyrardów award.
Research profile and research directions
Her scientific interests focus on the development of modern and sustainable strategies for ensuring food safety. They concern primarily the use of plant extracts rich in polyphenolic compounds, bacteriophages, antimicrobial peptides, and other natural bioactive substances to limit the growth of pathogenic microorganisms and microorganisms responsible for food spoilage. Dr Efenberger-Szmechtyk conducts research on natural preservatives for meat products and microbial biocontrol strategies in the food chain. She currently leads the MINIATURA 9 project funded by the National Science Centre, entitled “Pseudomonas spp. bacteriophages as modulators of the microbiome and shelf life of poultry meat”. She is also involved in research on the valorisation of waste raw materials from the agri-food industry and the formulation of polymer and packaging materials containing bioactive substances.
Honours and recognition from the scientific community
She has been repeatedly recognized for her scientific activity, including an award for her doctoral dissertation entitled “Biologically active compounds from leaves of fruit trees and shrubs as natural preservatives for meat products”, granted by the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences at Lodz University of Technology and POLMOS Żyrardów. She also received the Scientific Scholarship of the City of Łódź for doctoral students. She has served as Guest Editor of a special issue of Foods, is an editor of Frontiers in Microbiology, and acts as a reviewer for journals such as Food Chemistry, LWT – Food Science and Technology, and Molecules.