18IHC-Speakers

Speakers

Plenary Speakers

Prof. Jianshe Chen
Head of the Division of Food and Sensory Science,
Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), A*STAR, Singapore

Prof. Jianshe Chen is a Senior Principal Scientist at Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), A*STAR, Singapore. During his research career, Prof. Chen has been exploring the oral behaviour of food during an eating process and the physical, oral physiological, and psychological principles behind eating and

sensory perception. He is a pioneer in establishing food oral processing as a new emerging research area of food science and sensory science. He has published seven books and over 250 research papers with an h-index 62 and an i10-index 183.

Prof. Chen is an elected fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST), an honorary professor at Massey University, New Zealand, and a visiting professor at the University of Leeds, UK. He serves as the Editor-in- Chief of the Journal of Texture Studies, a Senior Editor of the Journal of Future Foods, and member of editorial board for a number of leading food science journals. Prof. Chen has been continuously ranked as the world top 2 % most influential scientists and among the top 100 most influential food scientists. He is also ranked by ScholarGPS as world’s top 0.05 % researchers in the field of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Talk title: coming

Prof. Hidemitsu Furukawa
Yamagata University https://swel.jp | https://soft3d-c.jp

Prof. Hidemitsu Furukawa is a leading researcher in soft matter engineering and 4D printing. He is currently Distinguished Research Professor and Head of the Soft & Wet Matter Engineering Laboratory at Yamagata University, where he also serves as Special Adviser to the Executive Directors and Special Assistant to the Dean for

Research. With a background in polymer physics, his research spans gel materials, soft robotics, and sustainable digital manufacturing.

Prof. Furukawa leads several national R&D initiatives, including the Moonshot Agriculture Research Project, the NEDO Leading Research Program / Material & Bio Innovation, and the SIP (Strategic Innovation Promotion Program) Virtual Economy Project. He is also the founder and president of the Soft 3D Co-Creation Consortium, which promotes academic–industry collaboration in emerging technologies. His mission is to realize a sustainable future through co-creative, intelligent, and responsive soft material technologies.

Talk title: coming

David Julian McClements
Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts

David Julian McClements is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts. He specializes in food biopolymers and colloids, with an emphasis on using structural design principles to improve the quality, safety, shelf-life, sustainability, and nutrition of foods. His recent research focusses on food

nanotechnology, colloidal delivery systems, designing healthier processed foods, and creating next generation plant-based foods. He is the author of ten books, including “How to be a Successful Scientist” (2024). “Meat Less: The Next Food Revolution” (2023), “Food Nanotechnology” (2022), “Next Generation Plant-based Foods” (2022), and “Future Foods: How Modern Science is Transforming the Way We Eat” (2019). He has published over 1700 articles in scientific journals (>200,000 citations; H- index 213, Google Scholar, 2025) and secured over $20 million in external funding.

Talk title: coming

Prof. Eiichi Saitoh
Senior Advisor, Fujita Gakuen Professor Emeritus, Fujita Health University

Dr Saitoh is a board-certified physiatrist, Professor Emeritus of Fujita Health University, Senior advisor of Fujita Academy, Aichi, Japan. He also holds adjunct/visiting professorships at several universities, including Johns Hopkins University (USA), University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (China), China

Medical University (China), and Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine (Japan). He was selected as an international member of National Academy of Medicine (USA, 2020) and a recipient of China High-end Foreign Experts Program (China, 2015).

He chaired the 13rd World Congress of International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM, Kobe, 2019) and chaired as the National representative, the 2nd World Dysphagia Summit (WDS, Nagoya, 2021). Recently he established the Asian Dysphagia Society as the chairperson (2023). His research areas are dysphagia, activity assistive technologies (including robotics, orthosis, smart home, activity monitoring, etc), motion analysis, locomotion, exercise science, and psychology.

Talk title: The landscape of dysphagia management

Prof. Sylvie Turgeon
Université Laval, Canada

Dr. Sylvie Turgeon's research interests include the functionality of proteins, polysaccharides and their mixture; membrane separation of dairy constituents (proteins, lipids); food rheology; functional properties of dairy ingredients; nutraceutical potential of algae.

Talk title: Controlled delivery of bioactive compounds from natural polymers across the concentration range of industrial application

Erik van der Linden
Professor of Physics and Physical Chemistry of Foods, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Erik van der Linden focusses on understanding the macroscopic scale in terms of the molecular and mesoscopic scale of, in particular for the last 25 years, food systems, during processing, storage, transport and/or consumption.

Mechanical properties, phase behavior and molecular assembly, play a dominant role

in his work. The systems range from microemulsions, liquid crystals, high internal phase emulsions, emulsions, foams, powders, and gels. Systems may contain one or several different meso-structures, such as for example semi-flexible protein based fibrils, microcrystalline cellulose, and oil droplets.

More recently, the phase behavior of systems containing a large number of molecular components is being addressed, both experimentally and theoretically. This is an example of understanding more complex systems.

The work in general requires the analyses on multiple spatial and temporal scales at the same time. For complex systems, AI tools may seem a promising approach, provided there is enough relevant data. To this end, a recent work introduced the encoding of Neural Networks (NN’s) with physics to mitigate scarcity of data and the results suggest that encoding NN’s with any disciplinary system based information yields promise to better predict properties of complex systems than NN’s alone. Such encoding would also be scalable, allowing different properties to be combined, without repetitive training of the NN’s.

In the work, quantification of complexity is relevant. Such quantification has been relevant to interpret specific aspects of food sensory perception.

Examples of product applications are an efficient gelating agent, temperature stable protein drinks for clinical nutrition, oiling off control of cheese, pasta containing 30% of vegetable, savory meringues, etc. An overall application area is the formulation of products with plant based ingredients.

Before the appointment at Wageningen University, Erik van der Linden was a research scientist at Unilever research in the US and in The Netherlands, where he worked on detergents, rinse conditioners, and cosmetics. He conducted a postdoc research at Emory University and performed his PhD research on microemulsions at Leiden University, where he also had received his master degree in theoretical physics.

Talk title: coming

Prof. Beiwei Zhu
Professor of Dalian Polytechnic University

Dr. Beiwei Zhu, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor of Dalian Polytechnic University, Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Seafood, Vice President of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, and Vice President of the Chinese Nutrition Society. She has long been committed to

the basic theory and application research of food resources, and has won the Second Prize of National Technological Invention, the Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress, and the Second Prize of National Teaching Achievement. In 2024, she was awarded the Liaoning Provincial Top Science and Technology Award.

Talk title: coming

Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Yapeng Fang
Distinguished Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2026 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Dr. Yapeng Fang is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is also a jointly appointed professor in the School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

Dr. Fang received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a PhD degree in Food Science and Health from Osaka City University.

He had a six-year working experience at Unilever Food and Health Research Institute, Netherlands, as a Marie-Curie Postdoc and at North East Wales Institute, UK, as a Reader. In 2011, Dr. Fang moved back to China and worked at Hubei University of Technology till 2018. Dr. Fang's research interest is focused on the applied basic research of food hydrocolloids, particularly those regarding the relationship between food structure, quality and nutrition. He coauthored over 280 papers in international peer-viewed journals and 60 patents, with more than 12000 citations. He also edited three books. He received the Natural Science Award of Hubei Province (a second-class prize) and the 2012 Young Scientist Excellence Award from IUFoST. He serves as an Associate Editor of the journals Food Hydrocolloids and the Founding Editor of the journal Food Biomacromolecules. Dr. Fang is supported by many different career schemes in China such as” Changjiang Distinguished Professorship', 'Ten Thousand Talent Program', 'NSFC Excellent Young Scholar' and 'New Century Excellent Talents in Universities'.

Talk title: The intracellular biological effects of food-derived nanoparticles

Prof. Qingbin Guo
Professor, Tianjin University of Science and Technology
2026 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Dr. Qingbin Guo received his Ph.D. in Food Chemistry from the University of Guelph in 2013, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Guelph, the Guelph Research and Development Centre (AAFC, Canada), and Kansas State University (USA). He also has been working as Professor in the Department of Food Science and Engineering at Tianjin University of Science and Technology (China).

Dr. Guo's research focuses on food hydrocolloids, dietary fibers, and bioactive carbohydrates, with particular emphasis on elucidating their structural-functional-bioactive relationships and valorizing agricultural by-products/processing side streams.

He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and 9 books or book chapters with leading international journals. In 2024 and 2025, Dr. Guo was listed among Stanford/Elsevier's Top 2% of Scientists worldwide.

Dr. Guo serves as Associate Editor for Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre and as an Editorial Board Member for Food Hydrocolloids for Health. He has chaired and organized multiple international hydrocolloid symposia/conferences and four special journal issues, contributing substantially to the advancement of polysaccharide science and sustainable food innovation.

Talk title: coming

Prof. Shaoping Nie
Professor and Vice President, Nanchang University, China.
2024 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Shaoping Nie is distinguished professor of Nanchang University, and also Vice President of Nanchang University. He received his PhD degree in Food Science at Nanchang University in 2006. After that, he joined Nanchang University and promoted to Full Professor in 2011, he also worked as International Fellow at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore for one year (2006-2007) and NSERC Visiting Fellow at Guelph Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for two years (2009-2011).

He has been recognized as a leader in the national high-level talent special support program and his projects have been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars and Outstanding Young Scholars. Furthermore, Prof. Nie is the Associate Editor for Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2022.11-), Associate Editor of Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre (2016.1-2022.9), Founding Editor in Chief of Food Frontiers (2019.11- 2022.12), also the editorial board member for Carbohydrate Polymers, Scientific Report, Food Science and Human Wellness, Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research.

Prof. Nie’s research interests are focused on food chemistry and nutrition, food safety and analysis, especially on the structure, conformation and bioactivities of dietary fibre and bioactive polysaccharides and the relationship of their structure and bioactivities. He also focuses on the research in the field of precise regulation of food components and nutritional health, as well as the creation of new food products, and developing bioactive ingredients for the functional foods and nutraceutical products; developing novel dietary fibre and polysaccharides from natural agricultural products and explores their applications in foods, medicinal and pharmaceutical industries. Prof. Nie has published more than 300 high-quality peer-reviewed scientific papers on journals such as Nature Communications as the first or corresponding authors (including co-authors). Additionally, he has edited 7 books and has been authorized 43 invention patents.

Talk title: Prospects for the Relationship of the Structure of Bioactive Polysaccharides and Their Multifunctional Effects

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Sushil Dhital
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University

Assoc. Prof. Sushil Dhital (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University) is Editor of Carbohydrate Polymers and Past Chair of the Australasian Grain Science Association. He is internationally recognised for his work on starch, plant-based proteins, and innovative processing technologies, advancing food structure, nutrition, and sustainability.

Talk title: Structure Matters: Tailoring Plant Proteins for Functional Food Applications

Dr. Chaiwut Gamonpilas
National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), Thailand

Dr. Chaiwut Gamonpilas currently holds the position of Principal Researcher and leads the Food Materials Research Team at the National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), Thailand. He also serves as Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, School of Environment, Resources and Development at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand.

His research focuses on food biopolymers, food structure design, oral processing, and digestion, with a strong emphasis on bridging fundamental science and practical applications. Dr. Gamonpilas has contributed extensively to advancing the understanding of food rheology, texture, and material science in food systems.

He is a member of the editorial boards of Applied Food Research, the Journal of Texture Studies, and the Journal of Biorheology (Japanese Society of Biorheology). His achievements have been recognised through several prestigious honours, including the WMRIF Young Materials Scientist Award and the National Research Award from the National Research Council of Thailand

Talk title: coming

Dr. Aaron Goh Suk Meng
Associate Professor, Singapore Institute of Technology

Dr. Aaron Goh Suk Meng has been an Associate Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology since 2014. He holds a B.Eng. and Ph.D. in Engineering from Imperial College London, UK. His research focuses on the mechanical and physical characterisation of soft materials, integrating engineering mechanics, food rheology,

and finite element analysis to investigate food texture and biomechanical systems. Before joining SIT, he held academic and industrial research positions at Curtin University Sarawak, Malaysia, and Unilever R&D in the Netherlands.

His research has been recognised with major awards, including the Royal Commission for the 1851 Exhibition Research Fellowship and the AACC International Rheology Division Young Scientist Award.

Talk title: Hydrocolloids in Novel Foods for Dysphagia

Pedro Fardim
Professor at KU_Leuven, Belgium

Professor @KU_Leuven, Belgium, committed to create sustainable technologies to support our planet and human health. D.Sc. Chemistry, State University of Campinas, UNICAMP, Brazil, Habilitation in Chemical Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, Finland Director International Master Program In Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven

Member of KU Leuven Alumni Engineers Steering Board and KU Leuven Metaforum
President of EPNOE Association (www.epnoe.eu)
Editor of Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (Springer Nature)
Editor of Journal of Polymer Engineering (De Gruyter)
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the International Academy of Wood Science.
Expert for: European Science Foundation, European Commission, Swedish Knowledge Foundation, Research Council of Norway, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Nobel Committees for Physics and Chemistry, Swiss National Science Foundation, UK Natural Environment Research Council, The Finnish Research Impact Foundation, Academy of Finland, Latvian Council of Science, Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft, Slovenian Research Agency, Inamori Foundation, American Chemical Society, 5 scientific journals, 6 International Scientific Conferences

Member of diplomatic delegations: 1) Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Brazil, May 2008 Official meeting with President of University of Sao Paulo; 2) Finnish Minister of Environment, Paula Lehtömäkki, China, November 2008, Official meeting with Minister of State Forestry Administration; 3) Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, Brazil, February 2012, Official meetings with Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology (MCTI), Official meeting with President of Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Organization of Finnish-Brazilian Seminar in Bioeconomy in Sao Paulo; 4) Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, Chile, February 2013, Official meetings with Chilean Minister of Education and Centre for Renewable Energy; 5) Finnish Minister of Education, Krista Kiuru, October 2013. Official meetings with Brazilian Minister of Education and Brazilian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Organization of Finnish Brazilian Workshop in Biomass and Renewable Energy at FAPESP in Sao Paulo; 6) Finnish Minister of Environment, Ville Niinistö, April 2014, Official meetings with Brazilian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Organization of Innovation Seminar at Brazilian Industry Federation (CNI)

During 2005-2019 - Full Professor in Biomass Chemical Engineering, Head of the Laboratory of Fibre and Cellulose Technology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
During 2013-2014 - Distinguished Professor in Advanced Materials, Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR), King Abdulaziz University -Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
During 1993-2000 – R&D laboratory manager at Suzano, Brazil
X: @Chemenghealth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedro-fardim-333272/
Web: www.pedrofardim.eu

Talk title: Pullulan-based gels for protein encapsulation and cell therapies

Dr. Tetsu Kamiya,
Section Manager, Nagase & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Talk title: coming

Prof. Stefan Kasapis
Professor, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Stefan Kasapis is a Professor of Food Sciences at RMIT University. His research interests focus on bridging the gap that has emerged between advances in fundamental knowledge and direct application to product situations with a growing need for scientific input. His technological work secured in excess of thirteen million

AUD in research grants and commercial contracts assisting the food industry to launch in the market novel formulations of liquid breakfast fortified with wholegrain oat and soy protein, oriental foods, high protein nutritional supplements for the elderly, alternative proteins and supporting the circular economy by repurposing food waste.

He is recipient of the Food Group Junior Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry for the best published work in Food Chemistry in the UK. Published in excess of 300 articles in learned journals in the field, edited 2 books and filed 9 patents with the food industry. Served at the Editorial Boards of Carbohydrate Polymers and BCDF and he is currently Editor of Food Hydrocolloids, which is the leading research journal in food sciences according to impact factor (IF: 12.4). He was the Chairman of the 9^th and 15^th International Hydrocolloids Conference held in Singapore and Melbourne.

He was awarded the inaugural Glyn O. Phillips Prize at the 16^th International Hydrocolloids Conference held at the University of Guelph in October 2022. He is regularly invited to give Plenary Lectures around the world including the Universities of Guelph, Wageningen, Sydney, Melbourne and Massey. He features in the 2025 Stanford University ranking in the top 0.17% of scientists in the field of food sciences. Lifetime citation number of published work is 13,063 with the h-index being 62.

Talk title: coming

Professor Hongbin Zhang,
Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

Talk title: coming

Speakers

Plenary Speakers

Prof. Jianshe Chen Head of the Division of Food and Sensory Science, Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), A*STAR, Singapore

Prof. Hidemitsu Furukawa Yamagata University https://swel.jp | https://soft3d-c.jp

David Julian McClementsDistinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts

Prof. Eiichi Saitoh Senior Advisor, Fujita Gakuen Professor Emeritus, Fujita Health University

Prof. Sylvie Turgeon Université Laval, Canada

Erik van der Linden Professor of Physics and Physical Chemistry of Foods, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Prof. Beiwei ZhuProfessor of Dalian Polytechnic University

Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Yapeng Fang Distinguished Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China 2026 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Qingbin Guo Professor, Tianjin University of Science and Technology 2026 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Shaoping NieProfessor and Vice President, Nanchang University, China. 2024 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Sushil DhitalDepartment of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University

Dr. Chaiwut GamonpilasNational Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), Thailand

Dr. Aaron Goh Suk Meng Associate Professor, Singapore Institute of Technology

Pedro FardimProfessor at KU_Leuven, Belgium

Dr. Tetsu Kamiya, Section Manager, Nagase & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Prof. Stefan KasapisProfessor, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Professor Hongbin Zhang, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China

Prof. Jianshe Chen
Head of the Division of Food and Sensory Science,
Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), A*STAR, Singapore

Prof. Hidemitsu Furukawa
Yamagata University https://swel.jp | https://soft3d-c.jp

David Julian McClements
Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts

Prof. Eiichi Saitoh
Senior Advisor, Fujita Gakuen Professor Emeritus, Fujita Health University

Prof. Sylvie Turgeon
Université Laval, Canada

Erik van der Linden
Professor of Physics and Physical Chemistry of Foods, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Prof. Beiwei Zhu
Professor of Dalian Polytechnic University

Prof. Yapeng Fang
Distinguished Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2026 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Qingbin Guo
Professor, Tianjin University of Science and Technology
2026 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Prof. Shaoping Nie
Professor and Vice President, Nanchang University, China.
2024 Glyn O. Phillips Prize Recipient

Dr. Sushil Dhital
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University

Dr. Chaiwut Gamonpilas
National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), Thailand

Dr. Aaron Goh Suk Meng
Associate Professor, Singapore Institute of Technology

Pedro Fardim
Professor at KU_Leuven, Belgium

Dr. Tetsu Kamiya,
Section Manager, Nagase & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Prof. Stefan Kasapis
Professor, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Professor Hongbin Zhang,
Shanghai Jiaotong University, China