Assoc. Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas
Group Leader
e-mail: dmaya@technion.ac.il
Assoc. Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas received her BSc in Biochemical Engineering and both her MSc and PhD in Chemical Engineering at the faculty of Chemical Engineering, Technion, Israel. During her graduate studies, she focused on the development of novel mucoadhesive polymers to formulate hydrogel systems aiming for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Her post-doctoral fellow at University of Guelph concentrated on oil-based gels, termed oleogels, where she worked on the formation and characterization of oleogels for various applications. Since 2015, she is the head of the Food Materials Engineering laboratory in the faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion, Israel. Her laboratory combines material science and food engineering concepts toward the development of new soft matter systems by exploring the relation between the nanoscale molecular structure to the meso-scale characteristics, and overall material functionality, aiming to produce sustainable, nutritional, and functional biomaterials.
Post-doctoral fellow
Dr. Shoshana Ginsburg
e-mail: shoshana.g@campus.technion.ac.il
Dr. Shoshana Ginsburg received her PhD in Food Science & Technology at The Ohio State University. During her studies, she explored lipid chemistry through chemical reactions, and analyzing the chemical and physiochemical properties of the products. Specifically, she used different catalysts to perform transesterification on various oils, investigating how the resulting lipids affected the oils’ crystallization. For her postdoc, Dr. Ginsburg plans to develop a novel plant-based product that will mimic butter in its texture, taste, and flavor.
Graduate Students
PhD candidates
Ina Nephomnyshy
PhD candidate
e-mail: inanapo@campus.technion.ac.il
Ina received her BSc (2014) and her MSc (2019) at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion, Israel. Between her BSc and MSc, she worked in Anvei -Zion company for two years as a food technologist. Her research focuses on structuring lipid-based systems using new natural structuring agents.
Shay Mugliansky
PhD candidate
e-mail: shay.i@campus.technion.ac.il
Shay recieved her BSc in the Biotechnology and Food Engineering department, Technion (2022). She joined our group in March 2021, and her project focuses on protein based bigel system for alternative system.
Tyma Batheesh
PhD candidate
e-mail: taimabathish@campus.technion.ac.il
Tyma received her BSc (2020) and MSc (2023) in Biotechnology and Food Sciences from Tel-Hai College, Israel. She later worked at BioBetter company in the R&D department concentrating on protein purification. Her research focuses on the formulation and characterization of micro-oleogels for fat mimetic in plant-based products.
MSc students
Yonatan Goldman
MSc student
e-mail: gyonatan@campus.technion.ac.il
Yonatan graduate his BSc in the Hebrew University and joined our lab on May 2023. His research focuses on novel oleogel formulations using unique oils.
Lior Shitrit
MSc student
e-mail: liorsh@campus.technion.ac.il
Lior graduated her BSc studies in Biotechnology and Food Engineering in 2024. During her undergraduate studies she worked as a research assistant in the lab on the development of Margarine replacers using healthier ingredients in collaboration with Tnuva. Currently she is working on the effect of water phase properties on bigel digestibility.
Emil Eshaya
MSc student
e-mail: emil.eshaya@campus.technion.ac.il
Emil graduate his BSc studies in Biotechnology and Food Engineering in 2024. He did his research undergraduate project in the lab on the photooxidation of oils and the effect of minor components on this process. Currently he is working on the formulation of new emulsion gel formulation for puff pastry applications in collaboration with Dr. Knut Franke from Hannover University.
Nitzan Friedman
MSc student
e-mail: nizan.fri@campus.technion.ac.il
Nizan graduated her BSc studies in Biotechnology and Food Engineering in 2024. She did her research undergraduate project in the lab on the effect of salt addition on bigel properties. Currently she is working on the improvement of bigel formulations for future cheese alternatives.
Yoav Ronen
MSc student
e-mail: yoavr@campus.technion.ac.il
Yoav graduated his BSc studies in Biotechnology and Food Engineering in 2024.
Noam Tal
MSc student
e-mail: noam.tal@campus.technion.ac.il
Noam graduated her BSc in Chemical Engineering in 2024 at the Technion.
Vika Shakaley
MSc student
e-mail: vikashakaley@campus.technion.ac.il
Vika graduated with a B.Sc. in Computer Science from HIT in 2018, and joined our lab in 2025. Her project focuses on the formulation of dietary fiber enriched bigels as fat mimetics
Research assistants
Yaheli Yairi
BSc student
e-mail:yaheli.yairi@campus.technion.ac.il
Undergraduate Students
Lotus Benrosh
BSc student
e-mail: lotus@campus.technion.ac.il
Itamar Lifshitz
BSc student
e-mail: itamarl@campus.technion.ac.il
Daniella Spector – BSc Student at Cornell University, USA.
Rinat Chen – BSc Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Food Technologist in Tnuva.
Aya Hai Haisa – BSc Biotechnology and Food Engineering.
Limor Harris-Naori – MSc Biotechnology and Food Engineering.
Shir Cohen – BSc Biotechnology and Food Engineering, MSc student at Tel-Hai College.
Sharon Laufer – BSc Biotechnology and Food Engineering.
Dr. Or Galant, Post-doctoral fellow at Prof. Sabrina Spatari, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion
Dr. Karin Wagner
Dr. Daniel Golodnizky, Research Associate, Technical University of Berlin
Dr. Areen Askar--Abu-Uksa
Anat Doroshev, MSc in polymer Engineering
Dr. Eden Shlush, R&D and Customer Service Engineer, Carmel Olefines, Israel