Maria is currently Emeritus Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW Sydney where she continues to supervise research projects in energy storage and aluminium smelting. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. She pioneered the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery that is currently being commercially manufactured by several companies in Japan, USA, China, UK and Germany and is widely regarded as the most appropriate technology for large-scale energy storage in a wide range of applications.

Maria has over 200 International refereed journal papers, more than 40 patents, over 110 conference papers, 4 book chapters and has co-edited 12 books.

She has been honoured with several awards:

(i)  Whiffen Medal, Institution of Chemical Engineers Australia, 1997

(ii) CHEMECA Medal, Institution of Chemical Engineers Australia, 1998

(iii) Member of the Order of Australia, Australia Day Honours List 1999.

(iv) R.K. Murphy Medal, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 2000

(v) Invested as Lady Commander of the Byzantine Order of St Eugene of Trebizond (Australia Day, 2009)

(vi)  Castner Medal, Society for the Chemical Industry, UK, 2011

(vii)  Lifetime achievement award, International Coalition for Energy Storage and Innovation, 2019