Professor Maria Harkiolaki

Maria is the Principal Beamline Scientist of the correlative cryo-imaging beamline B24 at the UK synchrotron Diamond Light Source. She is also an Associate Professor with University of Warwick’s Chemistry department. She is responsible for the design, build and application (including user support) and delivery of the facility which now encompasses an X-ray tomography setup with correlated super resolution fluorescence microscopy and a fully commissioned pipeline that involves all steps of the process from sample preparation to data analysis and dissemination. Her duties extend to teaching and supervision and she delivers both workshops and lectures on microscopy theory and applications (in person and online) while providing day-to-day supervision to a team of scientists, engineers, students, and technical staff.

Before her appointment at Diamond, Maria was a Principal Investigator at the Structural Biology Division of the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, UK from 2008 until 2012 (funded through a long-term fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organisation and subsequently through a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship). Her research at the time focused on understanding the structure of molecular interactions that define antigen recognition and autoimmunity.