Speaker Biographies
May Ng, University of Nottingham sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and Giract
Winner of the PFSG travel award 2011
May Ng is currently a final year PhD student working under the supervision of Dr Joanne Hort at the University of Nottingham. Prior to that, she has also worked for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as a Sensory Placement Student during her undergraduate studies in Nutrition and Food Science. Her doctorate work, which is supported by GSK and Giract, focuses on investigating the effects of sensory perceptions and packaging cues on emotions and its implication on consumer preference for products. She is also interested in understanding how other ‘conceptualisations’ such as functional ‘thirst quenching’ and abstract ‘sophisticated’ influence consumer responses.
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Lauren Rogers, Sensory Science Consultant
Lauren Rogers is a sensory science consultant and lives in Leek in the Staffordshire Peak District. Lauren started her working life as an Analytical Chemist and, with a Masters in Analytical Chemistry under her belt, she moved into Sensory Science full-time. She set up the sensory science function for Dalgety Plc (an ingredients company) in the early nineties and gained experience in conducting sensory analysis on a wide variety of products; from meats to yoghurts and crisps to cook-in-sauces. During this time Lauren developed sensory panellist training programmes and honed her statistical and reporting skills. Lauren moved on to work for GlaxoSmithKline, working on products such as Ribena, Lucozade and Horlicks and also various healthcare products such as creams and toothpastes. She became involved in quality control and factory-based projects as well as numerous NPD launches and product improvements. Lauren became involved in sensory shelf-life during her time with GSK and helped develop a consumer-led shelf-life approach to new product development. Lauren also initiated a large sensory, insights and marketing project to understand the sensory, consumer and emotional attributes of one of GSK’s major brands. Whilst working for GSK, Lauren was invited to lead the Leatherhead Food Research’s (LFR) Sensory and Consumer Forum Committee and became very interested in sensory claim substantiation after helping organise a conference at LFR on this topic. In 2009 Lauren set up her own sensory science consultancy business and has been lucky to work for a variety of companies on a large number of different product and project types, including running sensory and statistics training courses. During this time she has developed her interests in sensory shelf-life and quality control further, contributing to Food and beverage stability and shelf life, (Kilcast and Subramanian) and Sensory analysis for food and beverage quality control (Kilcast). Lauren has also become more involved with the Institute of Food Science and Technology’s Professional Food Sensory Group (PFSG) and has facilitated a PFSG discussion group on Sensory Claim Substantiation. Lauren is also a member of the Society of Sensory Professionals and the ASTM E-18 (Sensory) Committee.
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Melissa Spears, Non-Food Quality Manager, Tesco Stores UK
Melissa Spears is the Non-Food Quality Manager at Tesco Stores Ltd. Her role involves using a panel of Home-User-Testers to check the quality of Non-Food Own-Label ranges and subsequently issue product improvement recommendations to the Clothing, General Merchandise, Household, Baby, Beauty & Toiletries Categories. Lately, Melissa has been extending this remit to help substantiate product claims. In the 9 yrs of working for Tesco, Melissa has also measured consumer’s liking of Own-Label food using Central-Location-Testing (Food Quality Basket Manager) and had the responsibility of managing the quality, safety and legality of packaging consumables within its Goods-Not-For-Resale division (Corporate Purchasing) as a Technical Manager.
Melissa’s specialism’s in Quality Assurance, Retail and Consumer Research grew from an academic grounding in science (Botany BSc, Plant Pathology MSc). Prior to joining Tesco, she managed quality control within the Fresh Produce supply chain and gained her Advanced Certificate in Marketing (CIM) as a Market Analyst for an Agri Food consultancy.
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Dr. Carolina Chaya – Technical University of Madrid
Carolina Chaya is Associate Professor at the Department of Statistics and Management Science in Agriculture of the Technical University of Madrid.
- PhD on Agricultural Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid and on Economic Sciences at the University of Burgundy (France).
- One year fellowship for a Postdoctoral research project at the University of California – Davis, supervised by Dr. Jean-Xavier Guinard.
- Currently she teaches Statistics, Operations Research, Data Analysis, Sensory Analysis and Sensometrics on several graduate and postgraduate degrees and participates in several research projects.
- Her research topics of interest in sensory and consumer science are focused on the emotional response of consumers and consumer’s willingness-to-pay.
- From 2011 she has participated in several mobility actions with the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Dr. Joanne Hort.
- She is founding member and Secretary of the Spanish Professionals Association of Sensory Science.
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Dr Joanne Hort, University of Nottingham
Joanne Hort. B.Ed. (Hons), Ph.D. M.I.F.S.T., is Associate Professor in Sensory Science in the Division of Food Sciences at the University of Nottingham. Initially, she studied Food Technology and began her career in teaching. However, she returned to University to receive her doctorate concerning the modelling of the sensory attributes of cheese from analytical and instrumental measures in 1998. As a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University she carried out sensory consultancy for local industry, developed a sensory program at undergraduate level and oversaw the installation of new sensory facilities before being appointed as Lecturer in Sensory Science at the University of Nottingham in 2002. She has since established the University of Nottingham Sensory Science Centre, which is renowned for both its sensory training and research into flavour perception. She delivers sensory course at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Sensory Science. Her research interests focus on the multimodal aspects of flavour perception and individual variation and she has published many articles and books in this area, together with oral presentations and posters at international Symposia. She is the current Chair and a founder member of the Professional Food Sensory Group of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, is Vice Chair of the European Sensory Society (E3S) and was on the organising committee of the 6th International Pangborn Symposium in the UK in 2005.
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Peter Burgess, Campden BRI
Peter has over twenty years research experience in consumer and sensory sciences and is a Full Member of the Market Research Society (Dip MRS), Association for Qualitative Research and Society of Sensory Professionals. Since graduating from Leeds University with a BA Degree in Economics, Peter’s research career has included client side research and business development posts within the retail and financial sectors.
Peter joined Campden BRI in 2003 and was appointed Head of Department for Consumer and Sensory Sciences in 2005 where he is responsible for the delivery of both contract consumer and sensory testing and ongoing research for industry and public sector clients. Throughout his career, Peter has developed broad knowledge and experience of the technical and business development needs of the food industry spanning new product development, retailing and quality assurance, as well as investigating consumer attitudes on broader food issues in the changing marketplace.
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Duncan Smith, Mindlab International Ltd
Initially a graduate of biological sciences, Duncan Smith also has post graduate qualifications in education and management. A continued interest in the biological processes that cause human behaviour, allowed him to apply his knowledge to the management of people in a variety of environments. He has gained experience working at senior management level in a range of institutions, from the private education sector to corporate research laboratories.
As Managing Director of Mindlab International, Duncan now integrates his passion for studying consumer motivations and behaviours with modern research techniques to bring heightened levels of insight to industry.
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Dr Pascal Schlich, INRA, France
Pascal Schlich is a Director of Research with the INRA. He is currently the head of the ChemoSens platform at the Center for Taste and Feeding Science (CSGA) in Dijon, France. Dr. Schlich is a statistician by trade who develop innovative methods for the collection and the analysis of sensory data. His early work on difference testing, panel performances and preference mapping contributed to launch the Sensometrics Society. In the last ten years, he introduced the Temporal Dominance of Sensations method, developed sensory databases and coordinated consumer research on sensory education and preferences toward fat, salt and sweet sensations. Pascal also teaches statistics in several universities and provides the food and wine industries with consultancy.