Dr. María J. González-García accomplished her OD degree in 1992, and Ph.D. in Vision Sciences in 2008. Currently, she is Senior Lecturer in Optometry at the University of Valladolid, and a staff member of the Instituto Universitario de Oftalmobiología Aplicada (IOBA), University of Valladolid, since 1994. In the Clinical Area at IOBA, she is the director of the Contact Lens Unit, specifically dealing with difficult contact lens fitting cases since 1995.

Regarding pregraduate students, Dr. González García has been teaching at the School of Optometry in the contact lens field for more than 20 years. Also, she devotes a great part of her time to research, being an associate researcher at the Ocular Surface Group at IOBA. This group is formed by ophthalmologists, optometrists, biologists, biochemists, and technicians, and investigates in three main areas: Dry Eye Disease, Ocular Allergy, and Contact Lenses, this latest field being under her direct supervision.

She has collaborated in more than 40 research financed projects, has published more than 60 papers in specialized journals, 15 book chapters, and has participated with more than 180 communications in national and international conferences. Also, she is member of the editorial board of Contact Lens and Anterior Eye Journal (Elsevier), Journal of Optometry (Elsevier) and Journal of Ophthalmology (Hindawi), acting as a reviewer in 15 indexed journals and the Spanish Agency of Evaluation for scientific projects, and has been part of the scientific committee of 7 national and international meetings.

Her research is focused on contact lens and its interaction with the ocular surface, specifically in the topic of contact lens tolerance, looking for biomarkers that could be used in the diagnosis and treatment of contact lens discomfort. Additionally, she works in the dry eye field, studying the interaction of environmental factors such as relative humidity, temperature, airflow…with the ocular surface and the development of dry eye.