Rate My Professor Angel Medina-Vaya

Professor Angel Medina-Vaya is Professor in Applied Mycology and Director of the Environment and Agrifood Theme at Cranfield University. He obtained his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Valencia, Spain, in 2007, for which he was awarded the prize for the best PhD thesis in 2008 due to its novelty and quality. Following nearly two years working in the food industry, he secured a postdoctoral grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to join the Applied Mycology Group at Cranfield University from January 2009 to August 2010. He then held a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship from September 2010 to August 2012. Since 2012, he has remained with the group, becoming Head of the Applied Mycology Group in August 2021 and assuming the role of Director of the Environment and Agrifood Theme in June 2022. From 2015 to 2021, he served as Agrifood MSc Programme Director, managing teaching modules, quality assurance, examinations, and student projects. He completed a PGCert in Academic Practice at Cranfield University in 2020 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Additionally, he acts as an external examiner for other UK universities and chairs the Regional Expert Group for the EU and Russia at university level. In September 2020, he received the British Mycological Society Berkeley Award for his contributions to mycology as an early-career academic.

Professor Medina-Vaya's research specializes in the ecophysiology and molecular ecology of mycotoxigenic fungi, focusing on how environmental stresses, including climate change scenarios, influence fungal growth, secondary metabolite production such as mycotoxins, and implications for food security. Over 18 years, he has developed rapid screening methods for antifungal compounds, decision support systems for storing commodities like cereals and groundnuts to prevent spoilage and mycotoxin contamination, volatile organic compound biomarkers for early fungal pathogen detection, and integrated systems biology approaches using big data from RNAseq, metabolomics, and growth models. He supervises PhD, MSc, and Erasmus student projects. His prolific output includes 125 peer-reviewed journal papers and 14 book chapters, with an h-index of 35 on Scopus and 41 on Google Scholar. Notable publications are 'Possible climate-change effects on mycotoxin contamination of food crops pre- and postharvest' (2011, Plant Pathology, 582 citations), 'Effect of climate change on Aspergillus flavus and aflatoxin B1 production' (2014, Frontiers in Microbiology, 383 citations), and 'Climate change, food security and mycotoxins: Do we know enough?' (2017, Fungal Biology Reviews, 353 citations). His work advances sustainable food chains and addresses UN Sustainable Development Goals related to zero hunger, no poverty, and good health.