Maria Matveenko

Maria works across a range of chemistry and related technologies including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and materials. Having joined the profession and FB Rice in 2018, Maria handles Australian and New Zealand patent prosecution and provides her expertise to both local and overseas clients.

Maria received training in chemistry and biomedical science in New Zealand, and completed her PhD at the Australian National University in organic synthesis, producing several bioactive compounds including the antiviral agent Tamiflu®. Maria’s scientific experience further includes two years of synthetic organic chemistry research at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), Germany, and five years of peptide and protein synthesis and biochemistry research at the University of Vienna, Austria. Maria’s research work has resulted in 10 first author publications, and took her to present at multiple international conferences.

Prior to joining FB Rice, Maria was an associate editor at Life Science Editors based in Oxford, UK, providing editorial and effective writing solutions to scientists in various disciplines and assisting them in producing and obtaining their publications and grants. This allowed Maria to further develop relationships with clients from academia and industry internationally.

Having left the bench not that long ago, Maria is most enthusiastic about helping to convert research and development results into patentable inventions that can generate commercial value.

Maria’s selected scientific awards and engagements include:

• SciFinder Future Leaders program, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), Columbus, Ohio, USA (2014)
• APART Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2014-2017)
• Best presentation award, 3rd European Chemical Biology Symposium/ 2nd Vienna Drug Action Conference, Vienna, Austria (2012)
• Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2009-2011)
• Australian Postgraduate Award, the Australian Federal Government; Alan Sargeson Merit Scholarship, the Australian National University (2005-2008)
• Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship, the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission (2004; not taken up)
• The New Zealand Institute of Chemistry 300 Level Prize (2003)