Maria Antonia DiezMaría Antonia Diez is a research scientist of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the National Coal Institute (INCAR) in Oviedo, Spain. She received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Oviedo University. She undertook postdoctorl training at the Northern Carbon Research Laboratories (NCRL) in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) and has had short-stays at the Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland) and the CNRS of the Université d'Aix-Marseille III (France). Her research activity ranges from the characterization of coals for cokemaking and various aspects of the process to the structure and properties of the metallurgical coke as well as the composition and thermal behaviour of tar and pitch. Her interests expand to the environment protection mainly to the thermochemical feedstock recycling of organic wastes. This research is carried out within the framework of national and international projects and industrial contracts. She is author of over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in books and encyclopedias. She has been Vice-director of INCAR and head of the Science and Technology of Coal and Coal Products Department. She was a member of R&D Committees on a National and European level (European Coke Committee, Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the CSIC Commission, Coal Advisory Group of the RFCS-EU). Read More Read Less