BSc (Hons) Agriculture (Mauritius), MSc Food Science (Pret), PhD Food Science (Pret)

Position: Professor

Fields of expertise: Food chemistry, starch science and technology, rheology and nanotechnology

Tel no: + 27 (0)12 420-2059
E-mail:  [email protected]

Academic memberships:

• Member of the South African Association for Food Science & Technology

Orchid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-6056

NRF rating: C2 

Prof Emmambux is currently a full professor in the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences, University of Pretoria. He holds a C2 rating from the NRF and is the research leader for food processing at the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

He obtained his MSc (cum laude) and PhD in Food Science at the same department and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK), as well as a second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pretoria. He lectures in food chemistry, plant food science and technology and food rheology.

His research is broadly on African food biopolymers for nutrition and functional use. The main focus is on the chemistry of starch modification with lipids for clean label starches used in the production of nano-materials, non-gelling high viscosity starches for stabiliser and fat replacers, low glycaemic index foods, encapsulation of nutraceuticals, and biocomposites with other biopolymers. His research interests include food chemistry, food rheology, spectroscopy, microscopy and nanotechnology. He is currently working with six MSc, seven PhD candidates and 4 postdoctoral fellows.

Prof Emmambux has several publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, books, conference proceedings and non-refereed journals. He has also attended and presented posters and papers at several local and international workshops and conferences. During his PhD studies he received two best poster awards at the International Associations for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC) Conference and the Dreosti Award for the best oral presentation at the SAAFoST Conference. In 2009 he received a young scientist award from IUFoST (the International Union for Food Science and Technology). In 2015 he also received the Exceptional Young Researcher Award from the University of Pretoria.