Emeritus Professor Mike Gidley was until recently Director of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland, Australia, with research themes including: ‘Smart Selections’ (how to identify the right combinations of raw materials and processing to deliver consumer-preferred foods), ‘Naturally Nutritious’ (maximising the intrinsic nutritional properties of agricultural products in foods and ingredients) and
‘Uniquely Australian’ (identifying and validating opportunities for elite products from foods and ingredients that can only have come from Australia). Prof. Gidley also co-chaired the development of ‘Nourishing Australia – a decadal plan for the science of nutrition’ under the auspices of the Australian Academy of Science and available from the Academy’s website.

Dr. Gail Bornhorst is a Professor of Food Engineering in the Departments of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Food Science and Technology at the University of California Davis. She is also an Associate Investigator at the Riddet Institute (Massey University, New Zealand). She received her B.S. degree from Michigan State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California Davis in biological systems engineering. Her research involves developing a quantitative understanding of food structural breakdown during digestion and the impact on nutrient release and food functional properties, using in vitro and in vivo approaches. Her group also works on development of dynamic in vitro model systems for studying food digestion to improve human health. 

Professor Erich Windhab is currently a Professor in Food Process Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), where he heads the Laboratory of Food Process Engineering (FPE) at the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH). Erich Windhab has received several prestigious international awards, including: 2003, Blaise Pascal Medal (EAS); 2006, Int. Nestlé Innovation Award; 2014, Int. Food Engineering Award (ASABE); 2015, Lifetime Achievement Award (IAEF); 2018, Distinguished Lecturer Award (IUFoST); 2021, Lifetime Achievement Award (EFFoST); 2022, Outstanding Achievement Award (SATW). He created more than 600 scientific publications, ca. 85 patent applications and founded 12 companies. His research fields include Food Process Engineering with focus on multiscale functional structuring, Fluid Mechanics, Rheology, Soft Matter Physics and Process Control/ Automation.

Tarek I. Zohdi is a W. C. Hall Family Endowed Chair in Engineering, Chair of the Designated Emphasis Program in Computational and Data Science and Engineering and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley, as well as Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. His main research interests are in high-performance computing and modeling and simulation of coupled multiphysical industrial processes. He has published over 200 archival refereed journal papers and eight books. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the leading Journal in the field, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering and a co-founder and an Editor-in-Chief of Computational Particle Mechanics. He has given more than 200 plenary, keynote and contributed lectures at conferences, universities and other research institutions. In 2019 he was elected as Fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM) and  in 2020, he received the prestigious Humboldt-Forschungspreis (Humboldt Research Prize). 

Dr. Tsz-Ning Mak is a nutritionist with a Ph.D. in Nutritional Epidemiology from University of Cambridge. Her research experience spans across food industry, EU nutrition policy, and academia, focusing on understanding the dietary needs of different populations, from children to older adults; from Europe, Latin Americas to South-East Asia. Between 2018 and 2022, Tsz Ning was a scientist at Nestle Research in Switzerland and subsequently led a research group to develop nutritional solutions to support children’s dietary needs. She is currently managing the Singapore Hub of Nestle Research Institute of Health Sciences, to develop scientific research to tackle nutrition and health challenges in South-East Asia and translate such findings into product innovations that are tailored to the needs of consumers in this region.

Dr. Simon Harrison is a Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO Data61’s Natural Systems Modelling group. He combines Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Discrete Element Model (DEM) simulations of fluid and solid dynamics with Markerless Motion Capture (MMC) and musculoskeletal models of the body to study food digestion, performance, injury, and health. Simon and co-authors have built novel 3D physics-based models of food ingestion and mastication, gastric mixing and emptying, and intestinal transport, and have applied these models to research questions in the areas of food reformulation and GI tract performance. He holds a B Eng (Mech), a B Sci (Chem), and a PhD (Biomechanical Engineering) from the University of Western Australia.

Dr. Sunil Sukumaran serves as Chief Technology Officer at Perfect Day, and leads a global team of scientists, engineers, and researchers on the development and innovation of Perfect Day’s technology.
Dr. Sukumaran joined Perfect Day as the Head of Operations and Vice President of R&D, before being promoted to Chief Technology Officer. He was previously with Anthem Biosciences, where he served as the Head of R&D for a decade.
Dr. Sukumaran earned his PhD in biotechnology from Anna University and the University of Leicester and completed his post-doctoral training in microbial pathogenesis at the University of Southern California. He is passionate about the future of animal-free dairy and, with the rest of the Executive Leadership Team, is driving Perfect Day to its vision of building a more equitable, resilient, and diverse food system for all of us.

Professor Oded Shoseyov is a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel. He has extensive experience with plant transformation systems, protein engineering and nano-biotechnology, specifically bio-inspired nano-composite materials.
He has authored or co-authored over 350 scientific publications and is the inventor of more than 97 patents. Moreover, he is an outstanding entrepreneur and scientific founder of 18 companies. Among them are: Futuragene Limited, which develops transgenic eucalyptus trees for the pulp and paper industry; Collplant Limited, which produces human recombinant Type I collagen in transgenic plants for medical implants used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; SP-Nano Materials Limited, which manufactures protein-based nano-coating solutions for the composite industry; Melodea Limited, which develops and manufactures Cellulose Nano Crystals for food packaging and composite materials applications; and Miruku, a New Zealand-based company developing plant-based dairy proteins.

Professor Rickey Yada has served as Dean of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia since 2014. Prior to UBC, Dr. Yada was at the University of Guelph where he held numerous leadership roles, including Assistant Vice President Research, Canada Research Chair in Food Protein Structure, and Scientific Director of the Advanced Foods and Materials Network (Networks of Centres of Excellence). 
He is an advisor to many research and industry organizations, serving on the Board of the Canadian Food Innovation Network; Board of Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network; and the Board of Bioenterprise Inc., to name a few. Other positions include Advisory Board Member – Arrell Food Institute; Member of the Scientific Advisory Panels – Riddet Institute (New Zealand) and AgResearch (New Zealand).
Dr. Yada recently completed a term as Global Innovation and Partnership Advisor to the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI).  He is also a Past President of the Deans Council of the Faculties of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine in Canada; Past President and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and the International Academy of Food Science and Technology; as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists.

Dr. Wolfe is Jane and Edward Warmack Chair in Nutritional Longevity, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR. Dr. Wolfe previously held the John Sealy Distinguished Chair in Clinical Research at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. Dr. Wolfe is a world leader in the fields of human metabolism and stable isotope tracer methodology, with more than 600 publications, five books and nine patents to his credit. According to Google Scholar his papers have been cited more than 77,000 time (h factor =137). He has been funded by the NIH throughout his 40-year career. He has served as a member of several government and industry committees responsible for determining dietary protein requirements and has received numerous honors and awards for his work.

Dr. Fardet trained as an agro-food engineer from AgroParisTech and has a doctorate in Human Nutrition from the University of Aix-Marseille. Dr. Fardet worked for 12 years on the health potential of cereal products using experimental approaches (in vitro studies, in animals and humans), including metabolomic studies. Since 2010, Dr Fardet’s work has mainly consisted of analyzes of food data using an empirico-inductive (from reality to theory) and holistic (search for links between the parts of complex systems that are food and diets) approach: collection, analysis, synthesis and dissemination of new concepts, theories and/or paradigms for preventive and sustainable diets. Dr. Fardet’s work has generated new holistic concepts such as the 3V rule (Vrai, Végétal, Varié) for global health, the HCM (‘Healthy Core Metabolism’) or the new link between the loss of the « matrix » effect of foods and increased chronic diseases and degradation of food systems.