Maria Contel was a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian National University (1997-99) and at the University of Utrecht (1999-2000). She was a senior researcher (Ramón y Cajal Fellow, the most prestigious fellowship for young investigators in Spain) at the University of Zaragoza before starting as an assistant professor (inorganic chemistry) at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in September 2006. She became an associate professor in 2011, was made a Tow Professor in 2015 and in August 2016 she became a full Professor. She is a member of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. Her research interests lie in the field of inorganic/organometallic chemistry and, more specifically, medicinal chemistry (anticancer chemotherapeutics) and homogeneous catalysis (green chemistry). She is currently teaching Organic Chemistry and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry courses at Brooklyn College and at the Graduate Center. She is currently the Chairperson of the Chemistry Department

She focuses on the study of reaction mechanisms by spectroscopic NMR techniques in order to rationally design more efficient and less toxic catalysts and drugs. She is funded by the National Institutes of Health (2013-17).