Mª Luz Rodríguez was born in Madrid (Spain). She graduated in Chemical Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1984 and obtained a Doctorate in Sciences from the University of Valladolid (Spain) in 1990. In 1992, she did a postdoctoral stay at the University of Windsor (Canada), where she began her work in the field of sensors. Between 1993-94, Mª Luz Rodríguez completed her postdoctoral period with stays in other research centers of various European Universities (Grenoble-France, Pisa-Italy, Postdam-Germany), where she began her work on the development of sensor networks and their application in the analysis food.

In 1996, Mª Luz Rodríguez obtained a position as Full Professor at the University of Valladolid and since 2011 she has been Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the School of Industrial Engineering of the University of Valladolid.

• Development of electronic noses and tongues applied to food analysis.

During these years Mª Luz Rodríguez has coordinated national and international projects dedicated to the development of electronic noses and tongues applied to food analysis, with special attention to the analysis of olive oil and wines. She is currently working on several funded projects dedicated to the development of an electronic tongue based on nanostructured biosensors for the characterization of wines and olive oils, and the evaluation of their antioxidant capacities.

In 2004, the UvaSens group described a new type of electronic tongue based on chemically modified voltammetric sensors with electroactive and electrocatalytic materials that demonstrated superior discrimination capacity. Since then, the systems have been continuously improved and have been successfully applied in wine analysis (eg fraud detection, use of chips during aging, etc.). The success of the system is demonstrated by the high number of citations that these works have had.

Mª Luz Rodríguez is the author and co-author of more than 120 publications, 4 books and 3 patents in this field. She also regularly participates in international conferences where she has presented fifteen guest lectures. Her research has been financed by national organizations (Ministry of Innovation and Economy, Ministry of Education), the European Commission and by private industry companies interested in food analysis.

In view of the interest aroused internationally, Mª Luz Rodríguez has been invited as Visiting Professor at different European Universities where she has carried out teaching and research tasks. She has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Lecce (Italy), Firenze (Italy), Potsdam (Germany), Metz (France), Paris (France), Clermont-Ferrand (France) Dijon (France) among others. She has also collaborated with other non-European Universities including the University of Dallas (USA), Moscow (Russia), Windsor (Canada) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). She is particularly noteworthy for her commitment to strengthening scientific relations between Spain and Brazil: she was the promoter of the creation of the Brazil-University of Valladolid Chair in 2008 and has been its director until May 2011.