We are pleased to announce that Dr Jonathan Wilkin, Lecturer, Abertay University, has been nominated as an IFST Representative at this year’s IFT Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) taking place from 31 May to 2 June in New Orleans, USA.
IFT Emerging Leaders Network is a highly selective global leadership program established for new professionals in the science of food who are eager to expand their leadership skills. The program is designed to bridge the gap between the participant’s academic experience and their on–the–job training.
Participants will attend an intensive two-and-a-half day leadership seminar at IFT19 as well as receive access to IFT volunteer leadership, mentorship and peer collaboration opportunities.
Jonathan is a Fellow of Institute of Food Science & Technology and a Secretary of IFST Scotland Branch. Over the years he has helped organise student events such as IFST Student LaunchPads, Young Scientist Competition finals as well as other Scottish satellite events.
Throughout his career within Abertay University he has been in a decision-making role. In 2011, he started his academic life as a Senior Food Technologist for Food Innovation at Abertay (the commercial arm of the Food and Drink Division), where he was given the autonomy to help shape the direction of this entity within the division. In 2015, he took on a further role where he co-ran this entity, and then in 2016, he took over the running and became the Business Development Manager for the division. Here, he took a leading role in obtaining Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTPs). Jonathan is also an active member of the Cross Party Group for Food at the Scottish Parliament and a member of SCI.
Prior to this appointment, Jonathan completed a PhD entitled “The effects of storage and processing on the properties of Arachis hypogeae (peanut)” at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Part of the work submitted for this PhD was linked with the work carried out during his own KTP. Outputs from the KTP and sequential PhD was an academic paper on the storage qualities of peanut products, speeding up of product throughput (from 1.8 tonnes per hour to 2.4 tonnes) and a new Kellogg’s contract worth £1.5 M annually.
During his time at Abertay University, he has been responsible for 32 individual grants with a value of £1.7M. He has been principle investigator on four KTPs, where one project won two awards in 2017 at the Scottish National Knowledge Exchange Awards, one for Innovation of the Year and the other for Building Skills. In addition, since developing into the Business Development Manager for the division, Jonathan has helped secure a further four KTPs, matching skills of staff to the skills required by the company.