Parag Acharya joined Department of Food and Market in NRI, University of Greenwich, UK in 2020. He has 14 years of industrial R&D experience in food FMCG and biotechnology before returning to academia. He led food innovation projects for Unilever and has successful track record of developing plant-based product and process technologies for brands like Knorr and Hellmann’s. As a part of Food and Nutrition Sustainability Initiative (FaNSI) in NRI, Parag is leading climate-smart food research and innovation program with particular interest in alternative protein-based food.

Parag championed several multi-partner public-private collaborations (funded by EU-FP7 ITN, TKI-Agri Food, BBSRC-CTPs, GCRF, STFC Food Network+ etc.) and published 23 peer reviewed publications (h-index 11 and 459 total citations). He is representing NRI in the Growing Kent and Medway project (funded by £17.8million UKRI Strength in Places grant) to set up a regional agri-food innovation cluster, leading the development of Medway Food Innovation Centre and PI for projects on alternative proteins.  

Education

• PhD (Bioorganic Chemistry): Uppsala University, Sweden, 2003
• M. Sc. (Chemistry): Visva Bharati University, India, 1996

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About us

Dr. Marcos Paradelo Pérez is a soil scientist at the Natural Resources Institute University of Greenwich. Marcos is a member of NRI's Agriculture, Health & Environment Department, mainly working under the Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Programme within the NRI’s Food and Nutrition Security Initiative, FaNSI.

After graduating with a BSc in Agricultural engineering and a MSc in Agriculture and Food Science and Technology from University of Vigo, Spain, Marcos obtained his PhD degree in 2012 at the same university. He used for the first time the colloid filtration theory to describe the transport and fate of colloidal pesticide formulations through soil that were widely used in Galician (NW Spain) vineyards.

From 2013 to 2018 he carried his postdoctoral research at the Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Denmark. He investigated how soil structure controls soil ecosystem functions, using X-ray CT scanning techniques to predict the movement of water, solutes and colloids through soil. He also studied the changes in soil microbial communities under different soil physical environments and anthropogenic factors. He found that the changes in bacterial communities after herbicide applications is mitigated in soils with higher soil organic matter.

Marcos is always looking for the newest techniques applied to soil science. Together with other colleagues, he has used medical and industrial scanners and other visualization techniques to describe soil architecture, vis-NIR spectroscopy and multivariate models to estimate the partition coefficient of different chemicals. He has helped to developed fast response tensiometers to measure pressure jumps in structured soil during drainage to link pore-scale fluctuations to macropore/core scale fluctuations. Being inspired by frugal technology, he has used inexpensive colloidal tracers (sepia ink) to study colloidal transport in soil.

From September 2021 he is the programme of the Agriculture for Sustainable Development MSc.

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About us

To Kim Anh is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biotechnology and Food Technology (SBFT), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Vietnam. She has more than 35 years of experience in biochemistry and enzyme technology. Her research interests are now focused on biorefinery of Agrifood-biomass and wastes for bioproducts.

To Kim Anh has experienced as project leader and local coordinator of national and international research projects (PER and BioAsia funded by AUF, MONIQA-EU-FP6, FoodSeg and Gratitude-EU-FP7, etc.)

Education

PhD (Enzyme): Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam, 2000

Engineer (food technology): Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam, 1982

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About us

Between 2005 and 2009 Dr Walsh undertook a Ph.D. in the University of Limerick in applying and modifying a land-based indicator of sustainability; the ecological footprint which was undertaking a standardisation process. This work culminated in being involved in a joint publication with global practitioners (including concept founder Mathis Wackernagel) on establishing a research agenda. In particular, this research proposed a methodological system for incorporating methane into the standardised ecological footprint calculation methodology. Following on from this Dr Walsh undertook an extended period of post-doctoral studies at the University of Manchester across a number of different topics, primarily examining the role of the shipping sector in UK and Global Emission budgets. In the first instance this a project funded through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) was associated with the development of scenarios of UK trade including the effect of domestic decarbonisation on shipping emissions. Dr Walsh has diverse experience undertaking lifecycle assessments across a range of different sectors including agriculture, industry, transport etc. This includes leading and undertaking research in the goal and scope definition, inventory assessment and interpretation. Within a large-scale consortium project Dr Walsh has lead both global trade scenario development and detailed lifecycle assessment of global marine fuel cycles. The latter entailed the training and support of colleagues on the use of dedicated lifecycle Simapro. Dr Walsh has undertaken two detailed LCAs of agricultural of part of EU Commission value chain analyses for development (VCA4D) which undertakes value chain analyses across a range of agricultural commodities and countries in order to evaluate their contribution to growth and job creation, balanced against the sustainability and inclusiveness of these value chains. This included the presentation of results in a comprehensive manner but also communication of the strengths and limitations of LCA as a tool in informing sustainability. Dr Walsh has presented a range of public engagement and knowledge exchange events including café scientifique and pinfoscience. In addition to this Dr Walsh also served as a reviewer of a further VCA4D LCA exercise. Dr Walsh is a fellow of the Higher education Academy and h-index score of 16 according to google scholar.

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About us