Professor Suprakas Sinha Ray

Prof Sinha Ray is Chief Researcher and Director of the DST/CSIR National Centre for Nanostructured Materials (NCNSM), Pretoria, South Africa. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Calcutta, India, in 2001 and was a recipient of the prestigious Sir P C Ray Research Award for the best PhD research. After three years of postdoctoral research at the Toyota Technological Institute in Japan, he spent two and half years as a postdoctoral scientist at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Laval University, Canada. Towards the end of 2006 he joined the CSIR Materials Science and Manufacturing group as Nanoscience Group Leader, in South Africa. In November 2007, he was promoted to Chief Researcher and founding Director of the DST/CSIR NCNSM, CSIR, South Africa. Prof Sinha Ray was the recipient of the prestigious Moran Lambla Award of International Polymer Processing Society (USA) for 2013. This is the top award in the polymer processing field.

Prof Sinha Ray’s current research projects are aiming to overcome the boundary between fundamental research and industrial applications and to obtain direct benefit by strengthening both worlds. His team research focuses on several types of multi-phase and multi-component polymeric systems such as polymer alloys, blends, composites, and nanocomposites, biomaterials, conducting polymers, engineering plastics and the like. However, the main objective of his research is to establish the structure-processing-property relationship of nano clay-filled polymeric systems. 

He is one of the most highly cited authors in the field of polymer nanocomposite materials and on 13 different occasions his work has been featured on various international journal covers. He was recently rated as a Top 50 high impact chemist in the world of the last decade (Feb. 2011, Thomson Reuter). Over the last few years, he has given more than 20 plenary, keynote or invited presentations at various international conferences. Prof Sinha Ray has also organized or co-organized a number of international conferences. He is the author or co-author of five books and ten book chapters on various aspects of polymer-based nanostructured materials and their applications. He is also the author or co-author of 140 articles in high-impact international journals, 14 articles in peer-review international conference proceedings, 30 articles in national and international conference proceedings, and the holder of several patents. Prof Sinha Ray currently serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Nanoscience and nanotechnology, Advanced Science Letters, the International Journal of Plastic Films and Sheeting, Applied Nanoscience, and the Journal of Nanomaterials.

Mr Nigel Sunley

Mr Sunley holds a BSc Hons(Leeds, UK) and a MSc (UKZN) and is an Extra-Ordinary Lecturer in food product development and food legislation. Mr Sunley has spent 32 years in the food industry where his experience includes periods in research and development, as well as manufacturing functions with Cadbury Schweppes, National Brands, Bokomo and Kraft Foods. In 2007 he founded Sunley Consulting. The agency specializes in the areas of food product development, the nutritional enhancement of foods, technical trouble-shooting and the management of food safety, nutrition and regulatory issues, both locally and internationally. The agency has conducted projects in countries as diverse as Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and El Salvador. 

Mr Sunley is a past president of SAAFoST and chaired the organizing committee for the 15th World Congress of Food Science and Technology that was held in Cape Town in August 2010. He is a member of the global Governing Council of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST).

Prof Mario Ferruzzi

As a Professor at North Carolina State University, the long-term goal of Prof Feruzzi is to identify food science strategies that contribute to the prevention of chronic disease in humans through the application of nutritional and dietary strategies. Working toward this goal his research program has focused on addressing the impact of the food matrix and processing on micronutrient and phytochemical stability, bioavailability and metabolism. His efforts include the development of methods for determination of micronutrients and phytochemicals in complex food and biological matrices; the characterization of food matrix factors that optimize the stability of micronutrients and phytochemicals; and the exploration of food matrix and ingestive factors that impact bioavailability and metabolism of phytochemicals from plant foods using preclinical and clinical models. His program also focuses on leveraging food processing and formulation strategies to address micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries. 

Dr Robert Young

Dr Young holds a MSc Agric (Food Sci) from the University of Pretoria and obtained his Ph.D. in Food Science & Technology at the Texas A&M University (TX, USA) in 1990; he holds a marketing diploma from Henley Management College (UK) and has been appointed by UP as Extra-Ordinary Lecturer in Food Safety and Quality Management Systems in 2018. 

In 1993 Dr Young joined the food processing industry to apply his knowledge and skill in the commercial industrial area, where he was employed by amongst others King Food Corp, National Brands Ltd, Promasidor SA and Onderberg Verwerkings Co-Op.  Key achievements during that time were:

• development and implementation of company-wide project management skills, managing 80+ co-current New Product implementation projects, improving Nett Sales Value derived from new products from 3% to 15% of the income stream;
• built and implemented a full TQM system from GMP’s in 18 months focussing on LEAN manufacturing (global manufacturing group)
• built/co-ordinated a turn-key cereal processing factory in Kenya (US$8.2 million) in <2 years.

Dr Young has extensive knowledge and experience of a broad range of food products including meats, cereals, legumes/oil seeds, condiments, beverages (hot, cold and alcoholic), fruit & vegetable ranges, cosmetics and nutraceuticals. In 2015 he actively started consulting through NecJar Frootz focussing on development, manufacturing and trouble-shooting of especially beverages and cereal products.  He also functions as the Africa compliance auditor for SGF International (Germany) - aligned with ISO9001 / FSSC22000 principles, focussing on fruit and vegetable juice processing.

Dr Young’s career includes cross-functional project teamwork of multi-cultural complex make-up, representing more than 35 countries, 6 continents and multiple language scenarios.

Professor Hely Tuorila

Professor Hely Tuorila holds an emerita position in sensory food science at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She received her MSc and PhD degrees at the University of Helsinki, majoring in nutrition. In doctoral studies, her second subject was social psychology, leading her research to food attitudes and their role in food acceptance. Her key research interest is to predict food choice based on sensory, hedonic and cognitive factors.

During her post-doctoral and sabbatical visits at the University of California, Davis (1986-87), US Army Natick laboratories, Natick (1993 and later) and the University of Florence, Italy (2008), Hely worked on consumer responses to nutritionally modified and unfamiliar foods, but also on perceived attributes of foods due to composition and processing. She has long-term collaboration with Finnish medical researchers on genetics of chemosensory perception and preferences. With her colleagues and graduate students, Hely has published more than 150 refereed papers on these topics (Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9398-723), and also three textbooks in Finnish. Currently, she belongs to the editorial boards of Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Sensory Studies, and Food Science and Technology (LWT). She is internationally networked within the sensory – consumer science community, and in 2013, she received the Elsevier Established Researcher Award.

Working at the University of Pretoria, Hely’s mission is to assist, supervise and mentor the next generation of sensory – consumer researchers in using and developing their capacity for the best of science in Africa. Collaborative research and pan-African networking in the subject area will lead to better understanding of food consumers in Africa and thereby benefit nutrition counselling and product development.  

Dr Jeanine Kriek 

Dr Jeanine Kriek (previously Sainsbury) studied at University of Pretoria, and completed her PhD Food Science in 2019.  Jeanine spent 9 years in the local and international Food and Flavour Industry where she focused on Sensory and Consumer Science. During this time, Jeanine was active in SAAFFI (South African Association for the Flavour and Fragrance Industry) and co-presented at international sensory conferences. In 2018 she founded Jeanine Consulting, an agency that specialises in time- and cost-effective sensory solutions to improve the customer experience and guide brand strategies through scientific sensory and consumer research that is tailor made to fit the needs of a variety of FMCG clients. Although only 3 years young, the agency has already provided support to different food sectors in South Africa and USA.

Jeanine has extensive knowledge in the Sensory and Consumer research field and has published several peer-reviewed research papers in leading food science journals. She also serves as an external examiner at University of Pretoria where she was appointed as extra-ordinary lecturer in 2021. At UP Jeanine will focus on strengthening and further developing research and training programmes with the Department of Consumer & Food Science for industry partners conducted via Enterprise at University of Pretoria.