North Wales research centre attracts worldwide interest

20 June 2006

The prestigious Glyn O Phillips Hydrocolloids Research Centre based at NEWI in Wrexham has a new visiting Professor. Professor Katsuyoshi Nishinari from Japan will spend two years in North Wales carrying out very specialist research at the Centre which is an international bioscience research centre; dedicated to researching and identifying natural materials which can be used for a wide range of purposes from medical uses to various uses in food. 

Professor Nishinari is visiting from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at Osaka City University and is an internationally renowned scientist.  He is currently the President of the Society of Rheology in Japan and in August 2005 he was awarded the Japan Premier Award in Food Science for his innovative contribution to the industry.
 
His objective for his time at NEWI is to build on the success of the Centre by providing further links with a similar Centre of Excellence at Shanghai Jaio Tong University in China as well as strengthening links with other major researchers in Japan.  He will spend much of his time working on highly specialised projects relating to the structure-function chemistry of hydrocolloids and their application in food and pharmaceutical products.

Professor Nishinari is the most recent in a long line of visiting researchers from all over the world who have travelled to Wrexham to work at the Centre which has developed an outstanding reputation worldwide, putting science and applied research in North Wales on the map.  Other recent visitors who have spent time at the specialist centre have come from as far a field as India, China and Japan.

Dr Al-Assaf, Director of the Centre said, “We are delighted to secure the funding from our Japanese sponsor for Professor Nishinari’s visit to our Centre. He is an outstanding researcher and a true expert in this field.  His addition to our research group shows international recognition at the highest possible level of the growing success of science research at NEWI.”