Research Fellow in Lubrication of Sustainable Food Formulations

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have an established background in food colloid science and interests in designing novel plant protein-based formulations with optimized mouthfeel and health benefits to develop sustainable food products? Are you interested to explore the innovation potential of a scientific discovery to bring the research to marketplace by working with food industry stakeholders? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities?

We are looking for an Innovate UK-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a highly dynamic, interdisciplinary team; focusing on surface science techniques and friction force measurements to investigate lubrication of plant protein-based fibre-rich formulations. You will actively collaborate with experts in the School of Food Science and Nutrition from colloid science and microbiology and with commercial food industrial stakeholders (large as well as small-scale industries).

You will work on designing new plant protein-based lubricant formulations and test their technical feasibility in commercial fibre-rich food formulations. This will involve integrating macroscale friction force measurements, surface science knowledge, advanced imaging and other colloid science techniques to gain mechanistic information on the nature of the processes occurring in complex human oral mucosa. In particular, you will conduct research on biological tissues, such as mucins from animal origin as well as plant proteins and fibres that are widely used in sustainable food formulations.

You will have a PhD (or have submitted your final thesis) in Food Colloid Science, Soft Matter, Biophysics, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, and extensive knowledge and experience of force measurement and surface modification. You will also have a positive approach to collaborative research and the drive to make a significant contribution to make this ground breaking project a success.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: 

Prof Anwesha Sarkar, Professor of Colloids and Surfaces

Email: A.Sarkar@leeds.ac.uk