Supported by: Department of Process and Food Engineering Faculty of Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia


SYNOPSIS

Food engineering academics find themselves at cross roads. Should they be looking at the blue sky and contemplate on research problems which their own curiosities and preferences have created? Or should they be looking down to earth at their industrial counterparts and solve their research problems? The answer is not straight forward. For a start, the academic is not independent and cannot look wherever he or she wants. He or she enjoys government patronage and the government’s problems become his/her research problems! Industry, on the other hand, is driven by business imperatives, and business problems become their research problems. The dynamics of academic research in food engineering is totally different from the dynamics of industrial research. The outcomes of academic research in food engineering are applicable to: 1. the next generation of researchers, 2. the longer term health of the society, 3. the longer term environment, and 4. the longer term food security. In contrast, the outcomes of industrial research are to be applied here and now! This seminar will elucidate: 1. Food business dynamics and resulting engineering challenges, 2. Food Engineering academic mindset and the academic environment in which they operate, 3. Are the two “made for each other” or “opposites”? If neither, as one expects 4. Can we find common ground to work together, and make the “marriage” work for all the stakeholders, by raising the research resources required and fairly sharing the returns of research outcomes?


SPEAKER BIODATA

Keshavan Niranjan is the Professor Food Bioprocessing at the University of Reading (UK) where he has worked for over twenty five years.  A chemical engineer by training, he teaches food processing and engineering subjects. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, a Past President of the International Society of Food Engineering, and an Editor of the Journal of Food Engineering. Professor Niranjan’s research interests include: multiphase mixing, frying, edible oil extraction and processing, and high pressure processing. He has been actively involved in projects funded externally by food industry and national and international funding agencies.