Advanced Micro-Level Experimental Techniques for Food Drying and Processing Applications

Dr Azharul Karim is currently working as an Associate Professor in the school of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He received his PhD degree from Melbourne University in 2007. Dr Karim has authored over 200+ peer-reviewed articles, including 110 high quality journal papers, 13 peer-reviewed book chapters, and four books. His papers have attracted about 5000+ citations with h-index 38. His research has very high impact worldwide as demonstrated by his overall field weighted citation index (FWCI) of 2.10. He is editor/board member of six reputed journals including Drying Technology and Nature Scientific Reports and supervisor of 26 past and current PhD students. He has been keynote/distinguished speaker at scores of international conferences and invited/keynote speaker in seminars in many reputed universities worldwide. He has won multiple international awards for his outstanding contributions in multidisciplinary fields. His research is directed towards solving acute food industry problems by advanced multiscale and multiphase food drying models of cellular water using theoretical/computational and experimental methodologies. He is the recipient numerous national and international competitive grants amounting $3.15 million. Dr Sabrina Fawzia is currently working as a senior lecturer in civil engineering at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She is a structural engineering expert and research focuses on development of the high performance structural members and structural strengthening/ retrofitting by using Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) material technology. Through her scholarly, innovative, high quality research she has established her national and international standing. Dr Fawzia’s excellence in research has been demonstrated by high quality refereed publications (98 publications: 1795 citations, h-index=21 Google Scholar), two ARC LIEF grants ($1.9M), one international grant ($80K), five QUT internal grants ($79K), QUT’s SEF Award for Excellence in postgraduate research supervision, ten PhD’s and three Master’s by research completions, being invited by reputed universities for seminars and the establishment of national and international collaborative research relationships. Her recent research interest includes microstructural analysis of for structures. Dr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman received his Ph.D. degree from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, in 2018. Currently, he is working as a visiting research fellow at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He received his BSc Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) from the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), Bangladesh, in 2010 and Master of Engineering Science from the University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia in 2014. His research interest includes mathematical modelling, drying process optimization, and renewable energy.

1. Prospect of micro-level investigations in for food processing application 2. Food microstructure and quality changes in foods during processing 3. Use of advanced micro imaging method in food processing 4. Use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in food processing 5. X-ray micro-tomography in food processing 6. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in food processing application 7. Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy for food processing application 8. Light Microscopy (LM) in food processing 9. Neutron Radiography Scattering in food processing