Hanna Szczepanowska

Consultant, Technical Art History

Hanna Szczepanowska is a material scientist specialized in analysis of cultural heritage material. Hanna received her PhD from the University in Lyon, France, in Material Science and Master Degree in Conservation of Paper, Parchment and Leather from the University of Nicolaus Copernicus, Torun, Poland. During the past 4 years she established research laboratory and research program for the National Heritage Board in Singapore. Before that she worked for 14 years at the Smithsonian Institution, where she worked extensively with aerospace material, early satellites and Apollo 11 shield, collaborating with NASA and Naval Research Laboratory. Three book chapters resulted from these joint projects. Simultaneously, she work also as an adjunct professor at George Washington University, Washington DC, teaching an interdisciplinary course for Anthropology and Museum Studies Departments. Hanna obtained 2 Fulbright scholarships to Egypt and Malta assisting ministries of education in both countries on setting up long-term preservation of their cultural heritage.

Her recent research focuses on Southeast Asia materials, such as rattan, lacquer and gutta percha in the context of cultural heritage, and finding from analysis of rattan and lacquer have been reported in recent publications. In the past, for number of years, she researched biodeterioration of paper caused by fungi, which has been published in peer review, high impact journals, such as Journal of Royal Society of Chemistry (JAAS), Journal of the American Institute for Conservation (JAIC) and in Studies in Conservation, a Journal of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. She authored a book: Conservation of Cultural Heritage: Key Principles and Approaches, Routledge 2012.