Full Professor SSD ING-IND 25 (DIFARMA)
in Eng4Life she covers the role of Head of Scientific Area and she is a Board component
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Academic Curriculum
Prof. Anna Angela Barba is Full Professor (SSD ICHI-02/A – Chemical Engineering Processes, GSD 09/ICHI-02 – Industrial Chemical Processes and Systems) at the University of Salerno (DIFARMA). She graduated with honours in Chemical Engineering in May 1997 and obtained a PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2002. She was a CNR research fellow in 1999 and held a post-doctoral position from 2002 to 2004. She also carried out coordinated and continuous collaboration activities at the Department of Chemical and Food Engineering of the University of Salerno (2004–2005).
From October 2002 to March 2003, she spent a research period at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), where she collaborated on an interdisciplinary research project between the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, focused on pulsed plasma.
In 2005, she joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (now the Department of Pharmacy) as a researcher.
She teaches topics related to plant engineering, processes, and safety within the degree programmes in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technologies; Pharmacy; and Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Sciences for Animals.
She has taught and continues to teach in postgraduate training courses and summer schools, including: Professional Development Course in Food Sciences; Second-level University Master’s degrees in Hydrology and Thermal Medicine and Sports Medicine; Healthcare Management, Pharmacoeconomics, Pharmacovigilance and Management Aspects; Cosmetic Science and Technology; Microbiological Controls: Quality and Safety in Production Processes; Engineering Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture and Agriculture 4.0. She is a member of the Doctoral Board in Industrial Engineering.
Prof. Barba’s research activities focus on transferring typical Chemical Engineering processes and methods to the pharmaceutical and healthcare production sectors. In particular, she is the scientific coordinator of the “Impianti & Processi” laboratory and collaborates on research activities focused on:
- design of prototype equipment, innovative experimental setups, and definition of new operational protocols aimed at process intensification for the food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries, based on the use of electromagnetic fields (EMF, microwave range) and ultrasound (US);
- design, development, and study of the properties of particulate transport systems (milli-, micro-, nano-scale), of lipidic and polymeric nature, for drug delivery and functional molecules for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and agricultural products;
- characterization and treatment of materials of interest for the pharmaceutical industry (mainly hydrogels), nutraceutical sector, and agri-food industry.
These activities are developed through experimental and modelling approaches, analysing phenomenological aspects and the role of operational parameters in applied processes on product properties and observed phenomena.
She has participated in and/or acted as scientific coordinator of funded projects (MIUR, Campania Region, University of Salerno, private entities). She has been responsible for scientific cooperation between Kazan State Medical University (Kazan, Russian Federation) and the University of Salerno. She is co-founder of two spin-off companies.
She serves as a reviewer for numerous international journals in the fields of chemical engineering, polymer composite materials technology, and pharmaceutical sciences (ISI-indexed journals).
She is a member of the editorial boards of the following journals:
- Industrial Engineering & Management (Omics Group) – since 2012
- Translational Medicine@UniSA (UNISA) – since 2012
- Pharmaceutics (MDPI) – since 2018
- Journal of Agricultural, Food Science & Biotechnology (JAFSB) – since 2022
She has served as Guest Editor for the journal Current Drug Delivery for the special issue no. 14 (2017), and as Co-Guest Editor for Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923) for the following special issues: Drug Delivery of siRNA Therapeutics; Enhancement Strategies in Liposomal and Niosomal Preparations: Formulative and Technological Innovations; Micro/Nano Drug Delivery Systems.
She is co-author of numerous publications in international and national technical journals, conference papers at national and international meetings, and book/book chapter contributions; she is also co-inventor of several patents.
At DIFARMA, she has carried out various institutional roles, including membership in the Joint Teacher–Student Committee (CPDS). She is currently Coordinator of the VQR and Ranking Commission and a member of the University Quality Assurance Committee (appointed by rectoral decree).
She is a member of REPRISE and of the Register of Experts for the VQR 2020–2024 (she has served as an external reviewer for the VQR 2020–2024 exercise).