Julie Arslanoglu

Julie ARSLANOGLU joined the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in in 2006. She investigates the organic materials of paints, coatings, and adhesives, using mass-spectrometric and immunological techniques, with emphasis on natural and synthetic polymer identification and degradation. She introduced routine identification and localization antibody-based methods at the Metropolitan Museum to study artworks and in 2010 was awarded an NSF grant to study the impact of age, pigments and environment on protein-based paints and their identification by these methods. She is co-founder of the international, highly interactive meeting ART BIO MATTERS, focused on informing about the scientific capabilities for biological material study and debating their alignment with curatorial, conservation and art historical interests in biological materials related to artworks. She has a graduate degree is in organic chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University and a postgraduate degree in paintings conservation from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has held positions at the Getty Conservation Institute, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the National Institutes of Health.

She and her collaborator Prof. Caroline Tokarski from the University of Bordeaux, hold International Laboratory (LIA) status through the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France for the development and implementation of new mass-spectrometry protocols and strategies for the research of organic polymeric materials in cultural heritage and they have co-founded the collaborative platform ARt and Cultural HEritage: Natural Organic Polymers by Mass Spectrometry (ARCHE).