IUFoST Press Release
[29 November 2017] – The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) announced the Lifetime Achievement and Young Scientist Awards recipients, Dr. David Julian McClements and Dr. Emmanuel Hatzakis
The IUFoST Young Scientist Award recognizes an individual in the initial phases of her or his career for the potential to make outstanding scientific contributions to the field of food science and technology and the potential for future scientific leadership.
Emmanuel Hatzakis’ research interests include applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy in Food Science and Nutrition. He obtained his BSc in chemistry in 2000, MSc in organic chemistry in 2004 and PhD in food analysis in 2007, from the University of Crete in Greece. From 2008 to 2010 he worked as a postdoctoral Research Associate in University of Arizona, and from 2010 to 2012 he was Research Associate Professor in University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Hatzakis then became the NMR Director in Pennsylvania State University, and in August 2016 he joined the department of Food Science and Technology at The Ohio State University as Assistant Professor. Hatzakis has published 29 articles in peer-reviewed journals, has authored one book chapter and together with colleagues, has developed one patent to date. His. He is developing novel analytical tools for food evaluation and he applies NMR spectroscopy for the discovery and characterization of compounds with high commercial and nutritional value. Creating opportunities from food industry waste products.
Dr. Hatzakis has also been very successful in producing high value food products from food waste. A characteristic example is “AvoColor”, a natural food color additive in the yellow-red spectrum, extracted from Avocado seeds. “AvoColor” is the first product of a start-up company named Persea Naturals LLC, where Dr. Hatzakis is a co-founder, and as a member of the team he has a key role in the characterization and the production of this novel colorant. “AvoColor” provides the food industry with a product that it is unmatched by all existing products from a quality and cost perspective. Dr. Hatzakis has also developed novel NMR methodologies for the evaluation and quality assessment of edible oils and fish oil supplements. These methods offer a fast, reliable and cost-efficient analysis of olive oil, diacylglycerol oil and encapsulated fish oil in comparison to existing methodologies.
The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) is the global scientific organization representing over 300,000 food scientists and technologists from more than 75 countries. IUFoST has five regional groupings, ALACCTA representing Central and South America, EFFoST representing Europe, FIFSTA representing the ASEAN countries, MENAFoST representing the Middle East and North Africa and WAAFoST representing West Africa. IUFoST is a full scientific member of ICSU (International Council for Science) and it represents food science and technology to international organizations such as WHO, FAO, UNDP and others. IUFoST organizes world food congresses, among many other activities, to stimulate the ongoing exchange of knowledge in those scientific disciplines and technologies relating to the expansion, improvement, distribution and conservation of the world’s food supply. It provides the international food science and technology community with its best opportunity to exchange ideas and develop strategies to meet IUFoST’s goals. For more information: visit iufost.org; or contact: Professor Dr. Dietrich Knorr dietrich.knorr@tu-berlin.de