Ms Mercedes Gallego is Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at University of Cordoba . Dr Gallego works on most aspects of automatic sample preparation for food, clinical and environmental samples, combined with chromatographic and atomic/molecular spectroscopic techniques (with special emphasis on the design of autoanalyzers, screening systems, slurry techniques, speciation of organic and organometallic compounds and analytical applications of fullerenes). Born in Jerez , Spain , she studied chemistry at the University of Seville , getting MSc in 1977. She received her Ph.D. in 1980 at the University of Cordoba . Her teaching started at the same University together with a prolific research which includes near to 200 published papers, 5 book chapters where she has been author or coauthor and 3 invention patents. As a teacher, she has directed 20 PhD Thesis and she has had numerous foreign researchers under her guidance. A member of the steering committee of the University of Cordoba from 1990 to 1998, Dr Gallego lists listening to classical music, especially opera, and swimming among her hobbies.