The First SEAFOODplus Conference

Copenhagen, 04-10-2004 to 06-10-2004

Short presentation of speakers in the order they appear in the programme

Hans Christian Schmidt:

Minister for Food, Fisheries and Agriculture in Denmark since 2004.

 

Ciaran Mangan:

Scientific Officer, Directorate E, Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food in DG Research.

 

Torger Børresen:

Professor Dr Torger Børresen, PhD, is Research Director of the Department of Seafood Research at the Danish Institute for Fisheries Research and a Professor of Food Technology at the Technical University of Denmark. He has a long-standing experience as manager of research at all levels, counting project leadership, management of project groups and a research centre, department management and top administrative management at research institute level. Due to his academic skills he has been serving at research councils, advisory groups for research within the food and technology area nationally and internationally, and is still active in the academic world, serving e.g. on editorial boards for scientific journals. 

 

Ingeborg Brouwer:

Dr Ingeborg Brouwer from the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, the Netherlands, is a nutritionist with expertise in the fields of n-3 fatty acids and cardiac arrhythmia, and the field of folate and homocysteine. During her post-doctoral fellowship her main task was the coordination of a multicentre European clinical trial investigating the effects of n-3 fatty acids on cardiac arrhythmia in patients with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). She manages a major research project on the relation between dietary n-3 fatty acids, heart rhythm, and sudden death.

 

Lisbeth Fruensgaard:

Lisbeth Fruensgaard Jeppesen works as a researcher at the MAPP Centre - an international research centre located at the Aarhus School of Business in Denmark, where she carries out research on the development and marketing of food products. 

 

Wim Verbeke:

Professor Dr. Wim Verbeke from Ghent University in Belgium is involved in theoretical as well as empirical activities. He has carried out research activities in the field of consumer decision-making towards food and influencing factors, with specific attention paid to the role and impact of information and communication. Work has been performed with respect to meat consumption during 1998-2002 and the experience gained from these studies is now extended to other food categories including seafood.             

 

Grethe Hyldig:

Dr Grethe Hyldig from Danish Institute for Fisheries Research has carried out research activities in the field of sensory quality of fish and fish products. Her main research areas are sensory and texture. She participate in a series of EU projects concerning QIM, with specific attention paid to developing schemes for different fish species and fish products. Dr. Hyldig is a member of the management group of the QIM Eurofish foundation.

 

Albert Bosch:

Dr Albert Bosch is a Full Professor in Microbiology at the University of Barcelona, and director of the Enteric Virus Laboratory. Professor Bosch has been involved since 1979 in research on environmental virology, and particularly on the development of procedures for the detection and characterisation of human enteric viruses. Current research on enteric viruses cover several aspects of clinical, environmental and basic biology of these human pathogenic viruses, notably hepatitis A virus, astroviruses, rotaviruses and caliciviruses.

 

Paw Dalgaard:

Dr Paw Dalgaard from the Microbiology Group at Danish Institute for Fisheries Research has participated in a series of EU projects concerning the effect of microbiology on safety and spoilage of seafoods. Dr. Dalgaard is a member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Food Microbiology. He is internationally known for the development and validation of mathematical models to predict microbial growth and shelf-life of seafood as well as for development and distribution of the Seafood Spoilage and Safety Predictor software. At present Paw Dalgaard manages several projects on microbial activity in seafood.

 

Fabienne Guerard:

Dr Fabienne Guérard, University of West Brittanny, l'IUP Innovation en Industries Alimentaires (Lumaq) in France has great experience in the management of studies in the field of enzymatic hydrolysis, enzyme and peptide purification from marine by-products. She has undertaken research in the optimisation of bioactive peptide production with a particular interest in antioxidant/free radical scavenging activities and has participated in a number of bilateral research projects (French-Norwegian, French-Tunisian) and EU projects. She has close contacts with French companies specialised in fish by-products processing.

 

Richard Taylor:

Dr Richard Taylor, PhD, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France has an outstanding record in the research area of muscle structure and function related issues including fish texture quality. He is currently the co-ordinator of an EU funded project: ‘Mechanisms of ageing in extracellular matrices’.

 

Johannes Gislason:

Dr Johannes Gislason is the research director of the marine biotechnolgy company Primex in Iceland. The main focus of the development work of the company is on optimising chemical and biological properties of various chitin derivatives and on various protein-based products such as marine flavours and specialty marine proteins and peptides.

 

Ian Johnston:

Professor Ian Alistair Johnston, PhD, Chandos Professor of Physiology and Director of the Gatty Marine Laboratory University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom. He is an internationally recognised authority on fish muscle. His current research exploits post-genomics approaches to investigate the genetic basis of growth and quality traits in teleost fish. He has served on numerous national scientific committees including the Councils of the Natural Environment Research Council, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Marine Biological Association UK and the Society of Experimental Biology.

           

Sergey Blokhin:

Sergey W. Blokhin, founder and Managing Director of Double Delta R&D Ltd., a Hungarian research and development SME providing services in the fields of fish physiology, aquaculture technologies, and food safety. He is registered expert for 6 international consulting companies, correspondent for European Fish Price Report, awarded inventor; currently he is also Leader of NAS Activities in EU-funded Innovation Project.

 

Marco Frederiksen:

Dr Marco Frederiksen, PhD, at Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, has developed the worlds first two traceability systems integrated in sea scales and participated in several Nordic and EU projects including the Tracefish project. He has a PhD in the subject ‘Fresh Fish with Traceable Quality’ and has conducted chain analysis in complete chains from fisherman to retailer in Denmark, Australia and Japan. He has developed chain management models and developed and tested a complete Internet based traceability system from fisherman to retailer.  

 

Ole-Henning Fredriksen:

Ole-Henning Fredriksen is chief executive officer at TraceTracker Innovation A/S, a Norwegian SME. It is an Independent company established in 2003 to develop and operate systems for electronic traceability in food value chains. Research and development have been conducted in close cooperation with the food industry. The systems are generic and may be applied to all types of food value chains - something that is necessary, as supermarket chains need a traceability system that covers thousands of products. Their vision is to make chain traceability a profitable investment for the food industry.

 

Nick Hedges:

Dr Nick Hedges is from Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch company, which is one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world. Dr. Hedges carries out research on improving the oxidative stability and textural properties of frozen food products, relevant to Unilever's frozen foods businesses. His work includes investigating ways to improve the frozen storage stability of seafood products. 

           

Niels Alsted:

Dr. Niels Alsted, Group Executive Director of BioMar, Denmark. The BioMar R&D Group includes 16 scientists in Norway, Scotland, Denmark, and Chile, and has access to pilot facilities for production of experimental feed at BioMar’s Technology centre in Brande (DK), and freshwater tank facilities at Hirtshals (DK) and for seawater at Doenna (N). BioMar cooperates with fish farmers and research institutes, and drives development of commercial feed with expertise in fish physiology and nutrition.

 

Alistair Lane

Alistair Lane is Executive Director of the European Aquaculture Society, based in Belgium. He has a MSc. in Marine Biology. He has worked in the aquaculture feeds business in UK, France and Spain, with responsibilities in distribution, marketing and general management. He has participated in specialised courses including the strategic management of technology and innovation and has a Trinity College TEFL certificate from Windsor Schools. He was Project Leader of the EU project AquaFlow, and has a special interest in communication and in networks. He is on the list of experts for the evaluation of 6FP projects – notably concerned with networking and SME measures.

 

Mercedes Careche:

Dr Mercedes Careche, PhD, is Vicedirector of the of Instituto del Frío, CSIC, Spain, where she is Associate Professor in Food Science & Technology. She works on the quality improvement, and evaluation of fish products and on the structural/functional changes of muscle components.  She has experience in management of research projects, (EU, National and Regional Administrations, International Bodies, and Industry). She is acting as a member of evaluation boards for research, academic examination, and advisory boards for strategic R&D plans.

 

Begoña Pérez-Villareal:

Dr Begoña Pérez-Villarreal is Director of Business of the Food Research Division of AZTI, Spain. She has been the project leader of more than 80 national and international projects, and is co-authoress of 5 new food product patents. She is a member of the board of the Spanish Food Microbiology Society and of different other societies and committees (AENOR, FEDIT). She is an advisor and evaluator for several councils and administrations for strategic and R&D plans for the food sector. She has been involved in R&D&I activities and technology transfer to the food industry, particularly in the SME area, concerning quality issues and product development.

 

Lucay Han Ching:

Dr Lucay Han Ching, is acting as deputy-director of Living Resources at The French Research Institute for the Exploration of the Sea (IFREMER), France. He has considerable experience in management of research and industrial projects and coordinated EU projects. He contributed to the development of the surimi industry in France and coordinated the collaboration with the fish industry association. He was an expert from 2000-2003 in the evaluation commission ‘Food additives, aroma and processing aids’ at the French Food Safety Agency and is member of the French National Food Council which advices the government on food policy including the scientific, socio-economic, ethical and political dimension.