Dr. Aiva Plotniece is the principal scientist at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS) since 2005 and an assistant professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Riga Stradiņš University since 2019. She earned her MSc in Chemistry from the University of Latvia and her PhD from the same university  in 2003. Her specialization and scientific competences include: (1) medicinal chemistry, chemistry of pharmacologically active N-heterocyclic compounds; (2) organic chemistry, synthesis of heterocycles, development of new synthetic methods, characterisation of properties of synthesised compounds; (3) cationic amphiphiles, synthesis, studies; gene delivery; non-viral delivery systems; (4) nanoparticles; liposomes; structure-activity relationships; studies of the formation and properties of nanoaggregates; magnetic nanoparticles, their application.