Invited Speakers
Bhesh Bhandari
Associate Professor
The University of Queensland (Australia)
Dr Bhandari is an Associate Professor at the School of Land, Crop and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia. Dr Bhandari did his PhD from ENSIA, France. Dr Bhandari has a major research focus on the microencapsulation of food ingredients and glass transition related issues in food processing and product systems. Various microencapsulation processes such as spray drying, molecular encapsulation, co-crystallisation, precipitation, gel entrapment have been investigated. In many cases the hydrocolloids and proteins are used as encapsulant materials. Dr Bhandari has developed a continuous method to produce microgel particles from hydrocolloids. Dr Bhandari has also developed a simple device called Thermo mechanical Compression Test (TMCT) device to measure the glass transition temperature of solid food systems including biopolymers. Dr Bhandari has co-authored over 100 book chapters and journal papers. Dr Bhandari is one of the editors of Journal of Food Engineering and also is in the editorial board of several other journals.
Charles Brennan
Director
Massey University (New Zealand)
Professor Charles Brennan is Director of Food Technology Division at Massey University and is based in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The division of Food Technology at Massey University centres around the precept of improving the nutritional quality of food by the selection of ingredients, optimisation of formulation and manipulation of food structure. Research groups within the Division include food engineering, food microbiology, product and process innovation and food structure and function. Professor Brennan takes an active role in the Food Structure and Function group and his current research focuses on the interaction of food components on nutrient availability. Of particular interest is the interactions of non-starch polysaccharides in product innovation, acceptability, shelf-life, and function (in terms of glycaemic response). Professor Brennan was trained in Applied Plant Science at the University of London (BSc- Wye / Imperial College) and Food and Nutrition (PhD- Kings College). He has worked on food-related research for nearly twenty years in University's (Durham University and Plymouth University -UK) before moving to New Zealand in 2004. Professor Brennan has numerous linkages with the global food industry and academia acting on the Editorial boards of a number of publication and having an extensive publication record.
Harold Corke
Associate Professor
University of Hong Kong (China)
My research activities have focused on the discovery and characterization of natural (genetic) variation in starch physical properties among diverse genotypes of plants. Some of these variants are of immediate potential application in the food industry. Other variants require genetic characterization and transfer to more productive cultivars. We also focus on the development of novel starch properties by chemical and physical modification, and by blending diverse starches. Our aim is to be able to provide specific, targeted, starch physical properties with minimal chemical and physical modification, by making maximum use of biological variation. A survey of approaches and objectives in this field will be presented.
Kurt Ingar Draget
Senior Research Scientist, Adjunct Professor
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway)
Dr. Kurt Ingar Draget is a full time research scientist within the Norwegian Biopolymer Laboratory (NOBIPOL) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway. He has been involved in sol-gel transitions of biopolymers (polysaccharides as well as proteins) in both fundamental research project as well as industrial contract research. He has also focused his research around biopolymer interactions as well as the effect of oligoelectrolytes on macromolecular networks. He has authored and co-authored several book chapters, some 65 scientific papers and numerous industrial reports. He is also co-inventor of 12 patents and patent applications. He has been a member of 10 local organizing committees for international scientific conferences and chaired three of them, including the 8 International Hydrocolloids Conference. He has been teaching the subject of biopolymer materials for master and PhD students
Dave Dunstan
Associate Professor & Reader
University of Melbourne (Australia)
Current research activities in biopolymers are focused toward understanding the mechanisms of amyloid fibril formation/aggregation by proteins and the structure and rheology of soft condensed matter. A considerable research effort into the creation of novel structures from biopolymers and proteins in flow is being undertaken. We have investigated the structural changes induced in proteins and polymers in flow using novel rheofluorescence methods. The effect of shear on amyloid fibril formation has been shown to be significant. This has implications for a number of human diseases. We are also investigating the micromechanics of amyloid fibrils using single molecule force spectroscopy. The interaction between biopolymer gels at the microscopic level and the commensurate rheological properties is also being measured using state of the art techniques.
Henelyta S. Ribeiro
Research Scientist
Unilever Corporate Research (United Kingdom)
Dr. Henelyta Ribeiro joined Unilever Corporate Research in the UK as a Research Scientist in Particulate Structuring in October 2006. She is a Chemical Engineer, having obtained a Master of Science and PhD in Food Process Engineering. She has been working with formulation of bioactive compounds in the forms of emulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes and micelles since 2001. In 2001-2004, she worked with Prof. H. Schubert, as well as Prof. H. Schuchmann at the Institute of Food Process Engineering in the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Her research work was concerned with formulation of carotenoids with special reference to their absorption in vitro. In 2005-2006, she worked with Prof. M. Nakajima at the National Food Research Institute in Japan, on the production of O/W emulsions containing lipophilic bioactive compounds by microchannel emulsification and emulsification diffusion methods. She enjoys learning about new cultures.
Pretima Manoj Titoria
Section Manager
Leatherhead Food International (United Kingdom)
Dr Pretima Titoria, BSc (Hons), PhD, MIFST, is a Section Manager of the Ingredients Section, which is part of the Ingredients and Product Innovation Group at Leatherhead Food International, Leatherhead (UK). She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Food Technology from The University of Reading and with a PhD in Food Biopolymers from The University of Cranfield. After working as a Higher Scientific Officer at the Institute of Food Research at Norwich, where she specialised in application of rheology in emulsion science, she joined DuPont Cereals Innovation Centre (Cambridge) in 1999 as a Food Rheologist, looking at functional properties of cereal-based ingredients and their behaviour in various food & drink systems. Pretima then joined Leatherhead Food International in 2001, and she carries out a combination of confidential and member-funded projects, focusing on physical and health-functional properties of ingredients and their performance in food, drink and pharmaceutical products. Her research also includes manipulation of hydrocolloid molecular weight to generate new textures, microencapsulation by complex coacervation, edible films/coatings and prebiotics. Pretima is also the Forum Liaison Officer of the Food Ingredients Forum at Leatherhead Food International, which carries out Member-funded projects, looking at understanding how ingredient functionality influences structure and texture, how to improve relationship between ingredient functionality and processing, how to exploit ingredient functionality for new or novel concepts, and how to correlate physical properties with health benefits. She has over 20 papers published in various scientific journals and has co-authored over 20 reports from Leatherhead.
Qi Wang
Research Scientist
University of Guelph (Canada)
Dr. Qi Wang is a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and a Special Faculty Member in the Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Canada. Her research is focused on the study of structure - function relationships of water soluble polysaccharides, especially the relationships between physicochemical properties and potential health benefits of polysaccharide gums. She is specialized in molecular characterizations of biopolymers using static and dynamic light scattering, size exclusion chromatograph and rheological techniques to study the molecular weight, solution properties and molecular interactions of polysaccharides. She is an Editorial Member of the journal Carbohydrate Polymers and has authored/co-authored seven book chapters and over 30 peer reviewed papers.
Madhav P. Yadav
Research Chemist
Eastern Regional Research Center, ARS-USDA (USA)
Dr. Madhav P. Yadav is a research chemist at Eastern Regional Research Center, ARS-USDA in Philadelphia (Wyndmoor) Pennsylvania, USA. He received his Ph. D. degree in carbohydrate chemistry from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and post doctoral training at the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Purdue University. In 1992, he accepted a research associate position at University of California, Riverside and worked on arabinogalactanprotein and gum arabic and discovered the presence of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) lipid anchor on rose arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs), and reported that gum arabic, which is a mixture of polysaccharide and AGPs, contain GPI lipid anchors, which contribute towards its excellent emulsifying properties. Dr. Yadav joined the Eastern Regional Research Center in 2004 and his current research interest is on the development of new high quality bio-based functional food and non-food products from agricultural commodities and by-products of grain milling and ethanol production. In particular he is studying the structure function relationship of corn fiber gum (CFG). His main research activities are focused on isolating CFG from corn fiber, which is the main low value by-product of the corn wet milling process, and to relate its structural characteristics with its ability to stabilize emulsions. Dr. Yadav has thoroughly studied the emulsifying properties of CFG and proposed it as a potential replacer of widely used hydrocolloid, gum arabic in the beverage industries. He has also studied the active functional components and molecular characteristics of CFG and their influence on its emulsifying properties.
