Maria Ochsenkühn – Petropoulou is Professor Emerita of the School of Chemical Engineering at the Laboratory of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemical Sciences.

She is Chemical Engineer of the Technical University Berlin (1971) with funding of all her studies by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and Doctor in Engineering of the Technical University Berlin (1976), where she worked for 4 years as Scientific Assistant at the Institute of Technical Chemistry with funding by the Bayer Company and the DFG (German Research Foundation).

From 1976 until 2014 she belonged to the School of Chemical Engineering of NTUA (since 2003 as a full Professor), where she taught Physical Methods of Analysis, Environmental Science and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry to undergraduate students from the School of Chemical Engineering NTUA and post- graduate students in the interdisciplinary post-graduate Programs of NTUA “Environment and Development” and “Material Science and Technology”, where she continues to teach. He has published 14 academic and scientific textbooks.

Her main research fields are:

• Utilization of industrial by-products in laboratory and pilot plant scale (such as recovery of rare earth elements and in particular of scandium from red mud) and recently recovery of valuable metals grom batteries by hybrid methods, such as biohydrometallurgy.
• Speciation of toxic compounds of arsenic, tin and selenium in environmental, biological samples and food and participation in international working groups for the preparation of certified reference materials.
• Preparation and characterization of superconducting powders and coatings and development of an electrophoretic method for the preparation of coatings.
• Air pollution. Fractionated sampling (PM₁₀/PM_2.5) of atmospheric aerosol particles and determination of heavy metal ions and other elements with spectrometric (ICP-MS, ICP-OES, AAS, XRF, INAA), voltammetric (ASV, DPP) and chromatographic (IC) methods. Structure Analysis by non-destructive methods (XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDX). Study of particulate emissions in platinum group elements (Pt, Rh, Pd) from the car catalysts exhaust and of toxic elements/ compounds from burning of biomass (pellets).
• Quality control of surface water and groundwater using modern analytical techniques (ICP-MS, ICP-OES, voltammetry) and combined chromatographic techniques. Removal of bromate from water.

She has published about 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers in international journals and proceedings of international and Greek conferences with 2800 citations.

She was Scientific responsible in 45 European and Greek research and Education Programs.

Prof. Ochsenkühn – Petropoulou cooperated/cooperates with different Industries, as Bayer, Procter & Gamble, Aluminum of Greece, II-VI Incorporated, Metlen Energy & Metals, etc, as consultant and in the framework of different research projects.

She has supervised and is supervising 11 PhD theses and over 150 diploma and postgraduate theses at NTUA and other Universities abroad, as well as one postdoctoral researcher.

She was visiting Professor at several Universities and Research Institutes abroad, as at TU Munich, BTU Cottbus, Institute Hahn Meitner Berlin, Environmental Research Center, GSF (nowadays Helmholtz Center) in Munich, TU Berlin et al. Furthermore, she was Vice-President of the OEEK (Organization for Vocational Education and Training) of the Ministry of Education and National Representative of the program “Measurements and Testing” of the European Union.

For 4 years she was the Head of the Section Chemical Sciences of the School of Chemical Engineering and for 15 years on the Board of the Center for Environment and Quality of Life, NTUA.

From 2026 till the begin of 2026 she was on the Board of The European Association of Professors Emeriti (EAPE) and she is still on the Board of the Association of NTUA Professors Emeriti.

She has established since 1999 until today from the position of President, the International Conference series IMA (Instrumental Methods of Analysis-Modern Trends and Applications), which gather in Greece every 2 years the most important world known scientists in Instrumental Chemical Analysis.