Invited Speakers

From Physics to Food: Challenges for us all
Sarah Bridle (University of York)
Ulrich Müller (Technical University OWL)
Making Food Simulations “Crunchy”: From Manufacturing Processes to In-Body Performance
Matt Sinnott (CSIRO)
Food Armageddon: The Apocalyptic Battle Between AI and Physics
Nik Watson (University of Leeds)

Sarah Bridle, Chair in Food, Climate and Society, University of York

Following a physics degree, Sarah spent twenty years of research in astrophysics, measuring the amount and distribution of the mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the mass in our universe. Sarah’s children starting at school prompted a change of attention to climate change. Sarah came to understand that people are key to food system transformation – both through their own food choices and the influence they can exert as citizens. But people currently lack detailed information, which is why Sarah sits on a panel that advises the UK government on how environmental food labelling should work in the future. Recent work focuses on analysing the vulnerability of our food system here in the UK and Sarah chairs panels on the future of food, talks at science festivals and founded a project to develop resources for children to get them thinking about what kind of foods are healthy for them and the planet.

Applying their experience of developing open-source computer code in astrophysics to food, Sarah also works to help policy-makers make better-informed decisions and is creating a digital twin of the food system which shows how health and environmental impacts are affected by changes in diet, production methods and land use. Sarah is Co-lead of a network of over 1,500 people across the UK involved in food research, industry and policy, AgriFood4NetZero Network+, working to identify the research needed to help stop the UK from contributing to climate change.

Author of Food and Climate Change - Without the Hot Air, Sarah founded Take a Bite out of Climate Change, leads the Metrics Work Package of FixOurFood, and was appointed Food and Land Use System Fellow in the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Office at DEFRA in November 2021. Sarah regularly leads discussions with stakeholder groups in the food system as well as policy and science influencers as well as directing multiple outreach projects.

Ulrich Müller, Technical University OWL

Studied ‘Chemical Engineering’ at the University of Dortmund, doctorate with a background in bioprocess engineering, 1978-1985
Research assistant at the Chair of Technical Chemistry B (Reaction Engineering, Prof. Dr U. Onken) at the University of Dortmund, now TU, 1985-1989
Project manager in the development department of HAG GF AG, Bremen for ‘Decaffination and Green Bean Treatment Technology’ 1989
German Institute of Food Technology (DIL), Quakenbrück, initially project manager in the food process engineering department, from 3-1992 head of the process engineering department, 1990-1996
Professor Food Process Engineering at FH Lippe, now TH Ostwestfalen-Lippe, University of Applied Sciences, since 3/1996

Lecturer at the University of Paderborn and TU Dortmund, Faculty BCI, Food Technology, 2001-2005 and 2006-2019

Main Research Topics

Decontamination of plant materials (herbs, spices, pharma drugs), short steam treatment due to mechanical effects
Counterflow injection technology to produce stable emulsions in milliseconds
Fast water distillation to get essential oils
Dynamic freeze drying - fast lyophilisation
Lemgo LDz-value database, kinetic parameters of hea tthermal inactivation from literature in an internet database
Heat thermal inactiviation of germs (pasteurization)

Matt Sinnott, CSIRO

Dr Matt Sinnott is a Principal Research Scientist and Project Leader for the Modelling and Simulation Team in CSIRO Data61, Australia. The team are world leaders in the development of Particle Based Modelling (PBM) methods: Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), and the coupling of these and additional solvers to model multi-physics systems. From a background in computational & particle physics, he was awarded his PhD in high energy astrophysics at Adelaide University in 2002 and joined CSIRO to simulate dynamic complex physical systems involving fluid/granular/material flows. His research project portfolio now regularly spans very diverse application domains from industrial process engineering to the biophysical “Digital Human” space. Winner of the 2022 iChemE Senior Moulton Medal for his paper “A particle-based modelling approach to food processing operations”, he has 127 peer-reviewed publications (57 journal; 65 conference; 5 book chapters) and has been cited more than 3300 times with a h-index of 33 (Google Scholar). Matt’s research focus is on studying the interplay between different physics at different scales which influence the emergent behaviours of complex physical systems, and how to leverage that knowledge to control those behaviours for desired outcomes. He often seeks opportunities for innovation and novel perspectives that come from multidisciplinary approaches, particularly where different application domains (such as food manufacturing and in-body digestion) intersect and influence each other.

Nik Watson, University of Leeds

Nik is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Food in the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds. His research is focused on developing digital technologies and solutions to address environmental sustainability, food safety and health challenges in food production systems. His particular expertise lies within combining low costs sensors (e.g. acoustic and optical) with machine learning models to monitor and optimise production processes and predict food properties. Nik is a Chartered Engineer with a MEng in Mechanical Engineering (University of Hull, 2006) and PhD in Chemical Engineering (University of Leeds, 2010). From 2010 - 2014 Nik worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in the Food Physics Lab at the University of Leeds and from 2014 - 2023 Nik was an Assistant/Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham.

Personal Website: Professor Nicholas Watson | Faculty of Environment | University of Leeds
Current Circular Bioeconomy Projects:
Enhancing Agri-Food Transparent Sustainability (EATS): EATS
AI-Optimised Fermentation for Sustainable Protein Production from Food Side Streams | School of Food Science and Nutrition | University of Leeds
Connecting producers and consumers to enable more sustainable consumption: communicating the environmental impact of food through packaging: Connecting producers and consumers to enable more sustainable consumption: communicating the environmental impact of food through packaging | Horizon CDT Research Highlights