School of Engineering and Natural Sciences Faculty of Physical Sciences
E-mail
Phone number
Office
VR-1 - V01-114
Maria Elvira Mendez Pinedo
Professor Specialist in European Law (EU and EEA law)
School of Social Sciences Faculty of Law
E-mail
Phone number
Office
Lögberg - L-306
Office hours
Please ask for an appointment via mail.
Speciality
Abstract
MEMP (she/her) is a full tenured professor in European law at the University of Iceland, institution she joined in 207. Her main field of teaching is EU and EEA law as well as Economic International Law.
She holds a 5 year law degree from Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain); a Masters of Law (D.E.A) from University Paris II-Assas (France), a Postgraduate Diploma in International Law from MacGeorge University (Sacramento, USA) and a Doctoral Degree (Doctora en Derecho cum laude) from University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain). She has professional experience working as a lawyer in Spain, an editor of specialized books and a Legal Expert for the European Commission in Luxembourg (DG Consumer Policy and Official Publication Office).
Her most recent research projects concern:
1) the effectiveness of EU-EEA law, main principles of European constitutional law (ie. primacy, equality and access to justice) and the protection of individual rights before national and European courts; and
2) European consumer credit law and the protection of Icelandic consumers in the field of financial services (both indexed-to-inflation mortgage loans and variable rates loans/non indexed).
Over the years she has published several monographies, book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals, participated in Nordic/European research projects, taught in other European universities (ERASMUS), got research grants from important institutions (ie. Rannís, Iceland) and directed the thesis of some doctoral students (Icelandic and European). She has been a visiting scholar in leading institutions such as: Harvard University, Tufts University, University of Louvain-la-Neuve, and European University Institute (Fiesole, Italy).
Her most important contributions to legal science is probably the entry on primacy/supremacy published online by Oxford Constitutional Law/Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (2017) and several articles published by Cambridge University Press online.
My research focuses on the molecular mechanism of autophagy and its connection to cancer. Autophagy is a cellular degradation process required for the recycling of macromolecules within cells. The connection of autophagy to cancer is complex, as whereas autophagy can protect against initial tumour formation, cancer cells can then utilize autophagy to survive in a challenging environment. Our aim is to characterize novel therapeutic possibilities through better understanding of the autophagy pathway in cancer.