Invited Speakers
Connecting science, industry and innovation for a healthier future.
Mary Ann Lila is the David H. Murdock Distinguished Professor and a Professor of Food Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her research advances the use of food crops as sources of health promoting bioactives, integrating metabolomics, nutrigenomics, plant breeding, and translational food science. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists and has led global research initiatives across multiple continents.
Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin is an analytical chemist and metabolomics researcher specialising in high resolution molecular profiling across food, environment, and health. He is Director of Analytical BioGeoChemistry at Helmholtz Munich and leads the Comprehensive Foodomics Platform at the Technical University of Munich, integrating advanced mass spectrometry, NMR, and data science to characterise complex chemical systems.
Cristina Andres-Lacueva is a Full Professor at the University of Barcelona and a Principal Investigator at CIBERFES. She leads an accredited research group in nutritional metabolomics and precision nutrition, pioneering exposome-based approaches to healthy ageing. A recipient of the ICREA Academia Award, she is a Clarivate Highly Cited Scientist and among the top 2 percent of the world’s most influential scientists.
Bjoern Hamberger is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University and a group leader in the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. His research investigates how terpenoid biosynthetic pathways generate chemical diversity in plants and how these principles can be applied in synthetic biology. By studying enzyme flexibility, pathway organisation, and plant genomics, his team engineers high value terpenoids for resilient, biosustainable production.
Colin Barrow is a Deakin Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biotechnology at Deakin University. His research spans food, agricultural and marine biotechnology, and he is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Bioproducts. He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and a member of the ARC College of Experts and the TGA Advisory Committee on Complementary Medicines.
Michelle Colgrave is a Professor of Food and Agricultural Proteomics at Edith Cowan University and a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science. Her research applies proteomics and mass spectrometry to food and agriculture to support human health, and she is Deputy Director of CSIRO Agriculture and Food, leading translation and commercialisation of sustainable agrifood research.
Miranda Mirosa is a Professor of Food Science and Head of Department at the University of Otago. Her research specialises in agri food marketing and consumer behaviour, sustainable food systems, alternative proteins, and food waste reduction. She leads interdisciplinary, cross cultural research that provides evidence to support decision making across industry, government, and society, and directs the University of Otago Food Waste Innovation Research Theme.
Ana Rodriguez-Mateos is a Professor of Human Nutrition at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the health effects of plant foods and phytochemicals, particularly (poly)phenols, including the role of the gut microbiome, precision nutrition, and metabolomics-based biomarkers of dietary intake. She is the recipient of the Nutrition Society Silver Medal Award for excellence in Nutritional Sciences.
Kate Howell is a Professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. She leads a research group investigating how microbes shape the chemistry, flavour, and functional properties of foods, with a strong focus on fermentation and microbial ecology. Her work examines how botanical food composition and yeast–bacteria interactions during fermentation influence food quality, as well as how fermented foods and plant-derived compounds interact with the gut microbiome to affect health outcomes.
Dr Emma Beckett is a researcher and science communicator specialising in food and nutrition science, with a focus on how evidence is generated, interpreted, and translated for public understanding. With a background spanning molecular nutrition, food science, communication, and epidemiology, she advocates for scientific literacy, transparency, and stronger connections between research and real-world practice.
Catherine Bondonno is an Assoc. Professor at the Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute, Edith Cowan University. Her research focuses on dietary strategies for cardiovascular and cognitive health, particularly dietary nitrate from vegetables and flavonoids from fruit, and has informed international evidence and policy on nitric oxide pathways and chronic disease risk.
Yasmina Sultanbawa is Director of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences and a Professorial Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland. Her research covers food processing, preservation, safety, and nutrition, with a focus on bioactive delivery and translational food innovation. She partners with industry and communities to develop practical solutions, including work on opportunity crops and native foods to support sustainable and resilient food systems.
Hafiz Suleria is an Associate Professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on the isolation, purification, and characterisation of novel bioactive compounds from plant, marine, and animal sources using advanced technologies, followed by in vitro bioactivity, cell culture, and animal studies, with the aim of translating these discoveries into functional foods, nutraceuticals, and industry applications.
Professor Munish Puri is the inaugural Riddet–BSI Chair in Alternative Proteins, leading pioneering research in precision fermentation, synthetic biology and cellular agriculture at Massey University. His research focuses on microbial cell factories for high-value metabolite production, food biotechnology for nutraceutical and novel food development to address sustainability, food security, and human health challenges. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and ranked among the top biotechnology researchers in Australasia by Stanford-Elsevier.
Dr Karen Murphy is an Associate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics and a Dietitian at Adelaide University. Her research uses randomised controlled dietary intervention trials to examine how foods, nutrients, and dietary and lifestyle patterns, including the Mediterranean diet, influence chronic disease risk and healthy ageing. She focuses on cardiovascular disease, cognitive performance, and dementia risk, and leads a global taskforce advancing reporting guidelines for nutrition randomised controlled trials.
Professor Karen Charlton (University of Newcastle) is an ARC Future Fellow, nutrition scientist and Accredited Practising Dietitian with over 25 years’ experience in public health nutrition. Her research focuses on plant bioactives, particularly anthocyanins, and their roles in cognition, cardiovascular health, and healthy ageing. She leads a multidisciplinary program integrating systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, epidemiology, and mechanistic studies. With over 260 peer-reviewed publications, her work has advanced understanding of diet–brain interactions and informed nutrition research and practice.
Dr. Xuyu (Johnny) Liu is the Cardiovascular-Protective Signalling Group Leader at the University of Sydney and the Heart Research Institute. After completing his PhD in 2017 and postdoctoral training at Cornell and EPFL, he launched his independent lab as an ARC DECRA Fellow. His research focuses on decoding the mechanisms of heart-healthy vegetables in thrombosis prevention. His work has been published in Nature Chemistry and ACS Central Science, and supported by funding from the NHMRC, Heart Foundation, and Diabetes Australia.
Further speakers coming soon!
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Prof Elaine Holmes (Murdoch University, Australia)
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