Shaping the Future of Cultural Heritage Conservation through Sustainable and Digital Technologies
Cultural heritage conservation is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the convergence of advanced materials science and digital technologies. In this talk, Dr. Maguregui will present how her present (and future) research bridges these two frontiers to address both the environmental and technological challenges of modern heritage conservation.
In recent years, Dr. Maguregui and her collaborators have embraced the European Union’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework to develop greener materials for preserving cultural heritage. They then harnessed the potential of nanocellulose—a biopolymer widely used in other fields, yet sparely applied in heritage conservation. As a result, the team has developed hydrogels, cryogels, and Pickering emulsions that offer effective and sustainable solutions for tasks such as the desalination of wall paintings, cleaning of canvas paintings, and removal of corrosion from metal objects. These materials are designed to avoid toxic substances and enable reuse. Life cycle assessment and a closed-loop design approach were employed to adhere to the SSbD framework.
At the intersection of science, technology, and cultural heritage stands the application of chemical imaging techniques to investigate materials, detect early signs of degradation in artworks, and/or evaluate the efficacy of conservation treatments. In this talk, Dr. Maguregui will show how their full potential remains unexplored, unless integrated with digital technologies and AI-based models. This integration would enable more proactive and data-driven conservation strategies. Looking ahead, these open-access, intuitive, and interoperable tools and platforms will empower conservation professionals to collaborate effectively, interpret complex datasets in real-time, and make more informed decisions that support the sustainable preservation of our cultural heritage.
About Dr. Maite Maguregui
Dr. Maguregui has been an associate professor in the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country (Spain) since 2019. She teaches in various undergraduate (Food Science and Technology, Environmental Sciences), graduate (Forensic Analysis), and PhD (Interdisciplinary Scientific Strategies in Heritage and Landscape) programs.
Her main research line focuses on chemistry for the study and conservation of cultural heritage, although she has complementary interests in food science, forensics, and planetary science. She has developed non-invasive methodologies for the in situ and laboratory analyses of heritage objects, modeling and explaining deterioration processes, and proposing conservation strategies.
More recently, her research has focused on developing greener and more sustainable materials for the conservation of cultural heritage objects and on integrating new chemical and digital technologies. Her production includes studies of the wall paintings of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Machu Picchu, and Edvard Munch’s monumental canvas paintings.
She has led projects at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble, France) and the Ion Beam Laboratory at ETH Zürich. Since 2022, she has been a member of the ESRF "Historical Materials Block Allocation Group." She serves as a representative of the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) and as secretary of the EuChemS Working Party on Chemistry for Cultural Heritage. In 2023, she promoted the creation of the RSEQ’s Specialized Group on Chemistry for the Study and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, which she has chaired since.