November 7, 2017, by Communications
Academic Receives Asia Pacific Young Drying Scientist Award 2017
University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNMC) academic Dr Ong Sze Pheng was recently awarded the prestigious Asia Pacific Young Drying Scientist Award during the 9th Asia Pacific Drying Conference (ADC 2017) that was held in Wuxi, China from 24-26 September 2017.
The award was presented by the Chair of ADC 2017, Professor Min Zhang from Jiangnan University, in recognition of Dr Ong’s early career achievement in the development of new food products for health benefits and food diversification. She has contributed outstanding research work in identifying and evaluating changes in the properties of phytochemicals and antioxidants in food products, particularly underutilised fruits, herbs, and vegetables, during the dehydration process. Since her doctorate studies, she has been devoted to developing sustainable and green drying technology for food processing in order to preserve food as naturally as possible, without compromising the delicacy and nutrition. Her research areas also encompass the predictive modelling, sensory evaluation, antioxidant extraction and microstructure assessment of the dehydrated food.
“I am very thankful and humbled to receive this very prestigious award and I would like to dedicate this award to all my mentors and research team members in the University for their persistent motivation and support,” said Dr Ong.
She has studied the development and quality aspects of several dried food products such as salak fruit, jackfruit, roselle, petai and Moringa leaf. Her studies have been published in several peer-reviewed journals such as Drying Technology (Taylors and Francis). She is also co-editor and author of several drying-related ebooks and book chapters on drying topics. Previously, she has served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the International Symposium on Processing of Foods, Vegetables and Fruits in 2011 and 2014, respectively, and also Chair of Local Advisory Board ADC 2015.
Dr Ong joined the University of Nottingham Malaysia as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering in 2011 and she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. She is also a research member of the drying and dehydration team under the Food and Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Group.
For more information, please contact Haggai Gan
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