AigoraCast: Recent Episodes
John Ennis
Conversations with industry experts on how new technologies are impacting sensory and consumer science.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Roberto Salas, a Global Consumer and Sensory Insights Executive based out of Princeton, New Jersey. With over two decades in the FMCG industry, his career has spanned the globe, starting in Mexico and taking him through South Africa, the UK, Latin America, and eventually to his current work at IFF. We had a fantastic conversation about bridging technical sensory science with deep consumer understanding, and how he translates complex human behavior into actionable commercial growth strategies. Please join me in welcoming Roberto Salas. Roberto Salas is a Consumer Intelligence and Growth Strategy executive with over two decades of experience in the food and beverage industry. Operating in the Global Consumer & Sensory space, he specializes in translating complex market, consumer, sensory, and behavioral data into strategies that fuel portfolio growth, innovation, and brand differentiation.
Throughout his career, Roberto has managed global and regional projects for major corporations, including Danone, ConAgra, Cargill, Yoplait, and currently IFF. His expertise lies in bridging technical product design with a deep, empathetic understanding of human needs. Over recent years, he has pioneered the use of AI-powered tools to mine unstructured data for actionable intelligence. A passionate advocate for democratizing research, he frequently conducts workshops to coach cross-functional teams, ensuring that genuine consumer value remains at the forefront of the commercialization process.
Roberto holds a degree in Food Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC) in Mexico and a Master's Degree in Food Science, specializing in Sensory Analysis, from Kansas State University.
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: Roberto Salas * Expertise Areas:
- Growth Strategy & Commercial Impact
- Global Consumer Insights & Cultural Nuances
- Sensory Perception Modeling
- AI-Powered Data Analysis (Unstructured Data)
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, CEO at Aigora. In this episode, I enjoy speaking with Dr. Paula Varela. Paula and I shared a fascinating conversation regarding the role and risks of AI in consumer research, before discussing how sensory science can help drive healthier and more sustainable food choices. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future.
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: Paula Varela Tomasco * Organizations: Nofima & Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) * Expertise Areas: + Sensory & Consumer Sciences + Sustainable and Healthy Food Behavior + Cross-Cultural Consumer Research + Food Science & Engineering
"In this episode, I'm speaking with Michael Nestrud, a dedicated researcher of the human experience who uniquely bridges the gap between rigorous sensory science and the culinary arts. Based in Chicago, Michael is currently with First Position Training and Consulting, where his driving mission is to make 'product evaluation and sensory science for everyone.' We had a fantastic conversation about how his culinary background informs his research, and why democratizing product evaluation is so critical for modern food innovation. LinkedIn: Michael Nestrud Company: First Position Training and Consulting Expertise Areas: * Sensory Science & Product Evaluation Culinary Arts & Human Experience Research Training & Education Accessible Consumer Insights
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, CEO at Aigora. In this episode, I enjoyed speaking with Greg Fodor, an innovator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Greg and I had a fascinating conversation about the future of immersive experiences, the limitations of current VR hardware, and how headset-free technology could completely transform the way consumers interact with digital environments and products. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future!
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: Greg Fodor * Company: Portal VR * Expertise Areas: * Headset-Free Virtual Reality
- Spatial Computing & Immersive Technology
- Next-Generation HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)
- Technology Innovation
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, CEO at Aigora. In this episode, I enjoyed speaking with Nicolas Pineau of Data Insights. Nicolas shared a lot about his experiences both applying and teaching AI within sensory and consumer science, and I heartily agreed with his perspective that we are just at the beginning of an exciting change in our field. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future!
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: Nicolas Pineau * Company: Data Insight (Founder) * Expertise Areas: * Sensometrics & Advanced Statistics
- R&D AI Strategy & Leadership
- Food Product Innovation
- Data Science Consulting
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, CEO at Aigora. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Josh Cook of FlowAltDelete, a Microsoft MVP and true master of M365 Copilot. Many of our clients and students use copilot as their daily driver, so it was great to have an expert on Copilot on the show to share his excitement about the powerful new way of working it enables. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future!
Josh Cook is a Microsoft MVP in Business Applications and a prominent expert in the Microsoft AI and Power Platform ecosystem. He specializes in designing enterprise-grade solutions that bridge the gap between people, data, and intelligent workflows using Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
As a community leader, Josh directs the Calgary Biz Apps community and hosts workshops and hackathons designed to empower the next generation of builders. Under his content brand, FlowAltDelete, Josh focuses on making complex AI and low-code technologies approachable and actionable. He is widely recognized for his ability to help organizations move beyond the initial hype to design governed, scalable systems that connect people and intelligent agents in the next era of work.
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/flowaltdelete/ * Content Hub: https://flowaltdelete.com/ * Expertise Areas: * Microsoft 365 Copilot & Copilot Studio
- Power Platform Architecture (Power Apps, Automate, Pages)
- Low-Code Governance and Scaling
- Enterprise AI Implementation
welcome back everyone to another episode of AigoraCast. Today, I'm very happy to have Decio Cataldi and Matteo Bonfini from Adacta International on the show. Decio Cataldi is the executive director at Adacta International, a leader in consumer and sensory research. In his role, Decio oversees the company's strategic and financial direction with a specific focus on driving growth through technological innovation. With a background in strategy consulting, M&A, and restructuring, he brings analytic rigor to the field, spearheading Adacta's efforts to integrate AI into sensory and consumer science to create more predictive, data-driven research models.
Meanwhile, Matteo Bonfini is a food scientist and senior researcher at Adacta International where he leads sensory and consumer science projects for major global CPG companies. Matteo specializes in decoding consumer perception across diverse international markets, translating deep sensory data into actionable strategies for product innovation. He's dedicated to exploring how emerging technologies can enhance traditional methodologies and push the boundaries of consumer research. So, Decio and Matteo, welcome to the show.
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: Decio Cataldi * LinkedIn: Matteo Bonfini * Company: Adacta International
Expertise Areas:
- AI Integration in Sensory Science
- Data-Driven Research Models
- Global Consumer Perception
- Strategic Product Innovation
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, CEO at Aigora. In this episode, I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Damir Torrico, an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I particularly enjoyed our discussion on why curiosity is so vital, and specifically how "always asking" and pushing back on AI outputs is the key to achieving real fluency with these new tools. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future! Short Bio Dr. Damir Torrico is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specializing in the intersection of food properties, human physiology, and consumer behavior. His research focuses on flavor perception, emotional responses to food, and salt/sugar reduction strategies.
With a global academic background spanning Louisiana State University, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Costa Rica, Damir utilizes emerging technologies like virtual reality and biometrics to capture authentic consumer insights. His work aims to bridge the gap between laboratory testing and real-world eating experiences to create foods that are both nutritious and highly palatable.
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: Damir Torrico * University Profile: UIUC Faculty Directory * Expertise Areas: * Ingestive Behavior & Physiology
- Healthy Aging & Nutritional Sensory Science
- VR & Biometric Consumer Research
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, CEO at Aigora. In this episode, I caught up with my longtime friend, Dr. Wei Qin, Global Director of the Insights Center of Excellence at Ingredion.
I particularly enjoyed her story about a flavorist using AI to find a molecule they hadn't considered. It is a great example of her view of AI as a "stretcher" for human limits. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future!
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-qin-50078211/ * Company: https://www.ingredion.com/ * Latest Book: Gen X Asian Americans: From Learning to Thriving Expertise Areas:
- Flavor Modulation & Sensory Measurement
- Market Research & Consumer Behavior
- Center of Excellence (CoE) Strategy
- Social Media Insights for R&D
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Wei Qin in this episode are her own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Ingredion or Wei's former employers.
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Aigoracast. Our guest today is Dr. Riccardo Accolla.
Dr. Riccardo Accolla is a neuroscientist and food innovation leader dedicated to creating more resilient food systems through technology and human-centric insights. As the Director of Innovation at Thimus, he applies his expertise in multisensory perception, reward, and emotion to develop product strategies that resonate with consumers on a cognitive level.
With over 20 years of experience, Riccardo's career spans leadership roles at global flavor houses and food-tech startups. He previously led the design of sustainability-tracking software at ripe.io and founded A-T4H Consulting to support "better-for-planet" food solutions. Riccardo holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Swiss Polytechnic Federal Institute (EPFL) and a Master's in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic School of Milan.
Social Links & Resources * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riccardoaccolla/ * Company: https://www.thimus.com/ * Expertise Areas: * Multisensory Food Perception
- Neuro-Innovation
- Sustainable Food Systems
- Consumer Emotions and Reward Mechanisms
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Aigoracast. Our guest today is Todd Renn, a distinguished leader in consumer insights and sensory science with over 25 years of experience driving innovation at industry giants like PepsiCo, Pfizer, Clorox, and Land O'Lakes. Holding a PhD in food science and advanced credentials in business analytics from UT Austin and Wharton, Todd excels at bridging the gap between R&D and marketing, turning complex data into clear, actionable business stories. Now the founder of Todd Renn and Associates, he is dedicated to helping organizations sharpen their commercial impact and training sensory scientists to evolve into strategic business partners.
Hi, I'm Dr. John Ennis, President at Aigora. In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Thomas Wiecki, co-author of PyMC. Thomas and I turned out to have a lot in common, and it was a great pleasure to talk with an enthusiastic and like-minded traveler working to figure out this brave new world we all find ourselves in. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. And remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future.
Dr. Michelle Murphy Niedziela is a behavioral neuroscientist and founder of Nerdoscientist, specializing in integrating consumer neuroscience, behavioral science, and traditional research methods to decode consumer response. With a multidisciplinary approach, she helps organizations apply cognitive science tools to drive product innovation and strategy, bridging the gap between consumer perception, decision-making, and product experience.
Hi, I’m Dr. John Ennis, co-founder of Aigora and host of AigoraCast. This episode I enjoyed speaking with Dr. Maria Keckler, co-founder of the EmpathyRx Lab at San Diego State University. Maria is very easy to talk to, and I really enjoyed her ideas on the importance of human skills in the age of AI. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and remember to subscribe to AigoraCast to hear more conversations like this one in the future! Guest: Dr. Maria Keckler, EmpathyRx Lab, SDSU Dr. Maria Keckler is a keynote speaker, executive advisor, and strategist, known for her expertise in leadership development amidst the rise of AI. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from Claremont Graduate University, where she focused on the interplay of neuroscience, education, and behavior change. Dr. Keckler excels at bridging academic research with practical applications, empowering leaders to leverage human strengths. Her commitment to empathetic leadership is evident in her roles as co-founder of the Healthcare EmpathyRX Lab at SDSU and editor of The Structural Skills Project. Dr. Keckler is also the author of "Bridge Builders: How Superb Communicators Get What They Want" and has been honored as one of San Diego's 50 Most Influential Latino Leaders.
Links
Research: Empathyrx.sdsu.edu Website: DrMariaKeckler.com Newsletter: JustOnePivot.com Publication: The Structural Skills Project
Dave Lundahl is passionate about applying consumer insights to create a cleaner, healthier, and happier world through innovation. In 2003, he founded InsightsNow with a vision to apply behavioral science to advance product innovation. This led to the publication of Breakthrough Food Product Innovation Through Emotions Research (2011), receiving the Disruptive Innovation Award from NextGen Marketing Research (2017), securing a U.S. patent for measuring implicit reactions (2024), and now being honored with the 2025 IFT Lifetime Achievement Award for Sensory and Consumer Science. He gives back as a member of the Advisory Boards for the Department of Food Science & Technology and the Marketing Programs in the College of Business at Oregon State University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lundahl-a6bb45/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/insightsnow/about/
https://insightsnow.com/
Dr. Andreea Botezatu earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in Oenology and Agricultural Management in Romania before working as a commercial winemaker in Europe and Canada. She later obtained her PhD in Oenology from Brock University in Canada, where she also completed a postdoctoral position. Currently an Associate Professor and Extension Enology Specialist at Texas A&M University, Dr. Botezatu's research focuses on wine aroma, fault remediation, and overall quality, utilizing both chemical and sensory analysis. She also investigates Texas wine consumer attitudes and is exploring the application of emerging technologies like blockchain and LLMs in the wine and sensory fields. Dr. Andreea Botezatu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreeabotezatu/ Visit the Texas Viticulture & Enology Facebook Page Enology Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Oo5L0jMLR57IuUb0XmBxQ To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Angelica Iobbi is the Sensory Manager at Lactalis USA. She holds a PhD in Food Science and Technology from Oregon State University, where she specialized in wine sensory and flavor chemistry. Since January 2023, Angelica has been leading the sensory department at Lactalis USA, bringing her expertise in sensory evaluation, consumer research, and linking sensory and chemistry data to the forefront. Outside of her professional life, Angelica enjoys drinking wine, going for long walks, and practicing pilates.
Angelica Iobbi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelica-iobbi/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Greg has focused his career on the development of new methods, techniques, and services for consumer product innovations. His deep experience in the application of consumer behavior to product innovation has garnered industry attention and awards, with work featured in Harvard Business Review, The LA Times, ESOMAR World, and other industry publications. Greg has pioneered cue signals research, an approach where identifying product cues which motivate specific behaviors helps develop successful new products and brands. At InsightsNow, he is responsible for the growth of new business initiatives. Greg holds a master’s degree in food science and technology from Oregon State University.
Greg Stucky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-stucky InsightsNow Website: https://insightsnow.com To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Dal Perio is a Senior Manager of Sensory & Product Insights at Starbucks, with 30 years of experience in Sensory Science, Consumer Research, and Marketing Research across seven Fortune 500 companies including Johnson & Johnson, Diageo, and Unilever.
His expertise spans Product Innovation, Consumer Research, Quality Assurance, and Product Testing. At Starbucks, he focuses on Sensory & Product Insights for various channels, ensuring optimal research solutions. He's actively involved in numerous professional sensory organizations and was mentored by Rose Marie Pangborn.
To be put in touch with Dal, please contact Aigora. To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Mitchell Feldman is a seasoned entrepreneur with over three decades at the forefront of technology and marketing innovation. As CEO of Jam 7, he pioneers the fusion of human creativity with Agentic AI, transforming the landscape of B2B marketing. Mitchell's vision has established Jam 7 as a leader in AI-driven growth strategies, empowering ambitious tech brands through intelligent, autonomous Growth Agents that amplify human expertise.
Mitchell's career highlights include being named the first-ever Microsoft Worldwide Cloud Partner of the Year, winning the UK Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award, and successfully leading a strategic acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) in 2018. Passionate about the synergy between people and technology, Mitchell continues to redefine the future of marketing by championing collaborative frameworks where AI and human strategists work seamlessly together to deliver extraordinary business growth.
Jam 7: https://jam7.com/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
John Ennis is the CEO of Tulle, a company that builds economic efficiency tools for businesses operating on the blockchains, and the Founder and Chairman of Aigora. He’s also a market research consultant trained in both mathematics and computational neuroscience. He is the author of 50+ peer-reviewed articles and 4 books in sensory and consumer science, and the recipient of the 2013 Food Quality and Preference "Researcher of the Future" Award.
John Ennis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmichaelennis/ Tulle: https://www.tulle.ai/ To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Dr. Maame Yaakwah Blay Adjei, a leader in food science and sensory evaluation. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, and lead consultant at Sentinel Foods, PAMP Ghana Ltd, Ghana - contributing significantly to food science research and education in Africa.
With over 20 years of experience across both academic and industry sectors, Dr. Maame Yaakwah Blay Adjei has worked in various organizations, including Charles Sturt University in Australia, GlaxoSmithKline, and Leatherhead Food Research, both in the UK.
She believes that what we consume has a profound impact on our overall health and has focused her research and development on sensory evaluation and consumer science. She previously worked at Charles Sturt University as a Lecturer and Subject Coordinator before returning to Ghana to join the University of Ghana.
As a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, she has contributed significantly to enhancing the department's research profile and the quality of food science education. Her work spans from developing novel sensory evaluation methods to improving local food products.
She holds a Ph.D. in Wine Chemistry and Wine Sensory Science from Charles Sturt University, Australia, a Master of Research in Food Science from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Food Science from the University of Ghana.
Dr. Maame Yaakwah Blay Adjei has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals, with her research focusing on areas such as consumer preference mapping, sensory attributes of foods, and innovative methods in sensory science. Her work on Relative Preference Mapping (RPM) has been particularly influential in the field.
Beyond her academic achievements, Dr. Adjei is passionate about industry collaboration and knowledge transfer. This shines through her role as Principal Investigator on several projects, including the "Technology Centre for quality dairy improvement in small holder dairy farming," which led to the setup of state-of-the-art laboratories and processing plants at the University of Ghana.
She is committed to professional development and serves as the Vice President/Treasurer of the African Network of Sensory Evaluation Research and as a member of various professional associations, including the Institute of Food Science and Technologists.
Maame Yaakwaah Blay Adjei on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maame-yaakwaah-adjei-6159909/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Beatrice Boakyewaa Blay is a Ghanaian-based Food Technologist with a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry and a Master's degree in Food Science currently working as a Research & Development Technologist with a focus in New Product Development, Recipe Renovation, and Packaging Development. She's passionate about all things food and is interested in expanding her scope in the areas of Flavour Science, Sensory Science, and Artificial Intelligence in the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Space.
Beatrice Blay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatrice-boakyewaa-blay/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Cristhiam joined Procter & Gamble Beauty Consumer Measurement Sciences group about 1 year ago as a Sensory Scientist for the Skin Care Category. Before joining P&G Cristhiam worked in product research, sensory science, and quality control within the U.S. and Nicaraguan food industries in addition to post-graduate internships in food engineering and packaging, human nutrition, and research and development at Louisiana State University, Texas A&M, and Ventura Foods.
Cristhiam obtained her MS & PhD degrees in Nutrition and Food Sciences with a Minor in Applied Statistics from Louisiana State University. Her doctoral research integrated statistical methods for the analysis of formulation, elicited emotions, and cognitive cues effect on overall acceptability and purchase behavior towards products containing edible cricket protein at different stages of the consumer-product interaction. Her research uncovered important insights for the development of more sustainable products containing insect protein.
Cristhiam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristhiam-g-curran/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Gie Liem is an associate professor in sensory and consumer science at Deakin University, CASS Food Research Centre in Melbourne Australia. He previously worked at the Monell Chemical Center in Philadelphia (USA) and Wageningen University and Unilever R&D (the Netherlands). His research is focused on sensory marketing and drivers of consumer food choice. He is part of the editorial board of Food Quality and Preference and an executive editor of the journal Appetite.
Gie Liem's email: gie.liem@deakin.edu.au
Gie Liem's Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0l3T8mPyP4CJRWKM2n3fW0
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Liesbeth Zandstra is Science Leader Consumer Science at Unilever Foods Innovation Centre Wageningen and professor of Food Reward and Behaviour at Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands). Her main research focuses on scientific challenges to find new ways to make the healthy and sustainable choice the easy and preferred choice. She is particularly interested in psychophysiological and behavioral effects of foods as well as new methodologies for better understanding sensory perception and consumer behaviour.
The consumer voice is at the heart of all the work she does. Her focus is on technology and product innovations in relation to consumer behaviour that contribute to a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle and increase overall well-being. Examples include the acceptance of salt-reduced products in South Africa and plant-based meat products in Europe and making plant-based cooking accessible and cookable in the Netherlands.
Liesbeth gained extensive experience in establishing and leading teams: skill-base, projects, community of practice, and other teams. She also managed complex international projects across different international Unilever locations. She has a strong national and international network and as part of the Ecosystem Innovation paradigm she has collaborated with leading universities and research institutes all over the world - including for example the UK, South Korea, India, and South Africa. She is chairing the foundation ‘Feed Your Mind’ that works on a sustainable food transition by combining breakthrough research with innovative food design for all.
Her passion is to develop new insights and innovations and drive these to have a real impact on the health and well-being of citizens worldwide.
Liesbeth Zandstra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liesbeth-zandstra-4b14205/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Michael Hautus is an internationally recognized expert in quantitative and experimental psychology. As a professor at the University of Auckland School of Psychology, he specializes in sensory and perceptual systems research, cognitive modelling, and analyzing detection and discrimination judgments.
With over 100 publications, Professor Hautus has also contributed to research in sensory evaluation, auditory neuroscience, pain research, human memory, and decision science. His highly-cited works include the 3rd edition of Detection Theory: A User's Guide and the specialized software SDT Assistant, which enables broader implementation of advanced techniques of signal detection theory.
Through his extensive publication record, editorial roles, conference presentations, and collaborations, Professor Hautus has established himself as a leader in psychophysics and detection theory. His current research projects continue to disseminate cutting-edge techniques and push boundaries in the global research community.
Michael Hautus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hautus-8b5a7419/ Michael's Website: https://hautus.org/ Email: m.hautus@auckland.ac.nz
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Tzvi Wiesel is an experienced whisky investor and trader, focused on fine and rare bottles and casks. He is the Founder and CEO of BAXUS, a marketplace for trading high-end wine and spirits, powered by blockchain technology. Tzvi got his start in the spirits industry initially by accident, when he was staffed as a production assistant. He quickly became fascinated by the expansive whiskey collections. He launched his own whiskey fund on his own while at school at Columbia University where he met Carrie, his current business partner. Tzvi is currently Head of Fine & Rare bottles for Dalkeith Brokerage, a premier whisky brokerage firm. Formerly Managing Director of The Negotiation Institute.
Tzvi Wiesel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/web4O
Tzvi Wiesel on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-wiesel/
Tzvi Wiesel suggested podcasts:
Blockworks podcast: https://blockworks.co/podcasts
Coindesk Podcast: https://www.coindesk.com/podcasts
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Parvaneh Parvin is a tech-savvy problem solver with a flair for all things culinary. She studied Digital Humanities and Computer Science at the University of Pisa in Italy, where she also earned her PhD in her research into Just-in-time health feedback systems for older adults with mild cognitive impairments. But she didn't stop at algorithms and data; her deep passion for food steered her on a different path.
Pari’s journey into the world of food technology began when she joined Wageningen University & Research. Today, as a postdoc researcher within the Health and Nutrition division in the Sensory Science and Eating behavior group, she has carved out a niche in the world of Food recommendation systems. Her mission? To make the culinary world joyful and delightful for those dealing with smell disorder.
As a Persian, she has inherited a deep passion for the intricate dance of flavors and spices that define her cuisine. It's not just about algorithms; it's about creating digital experiences that tantalize the senses, much like crafting a delectable dish.
Join her on this unique journey where technology meets the kitchen, and together, we'll explore the flavors of tomorrow.
Pari Parvin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parvaneh-parvin/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Julia has recently joined SAM Sensory and Consumer Research as Research Manager, Germany. Before joining SAM, Julia graduated with a doctoral degree in Food Science & Technology from the University of Florence. Her research focused on the role of emotions, personality traits, and sensory sensitivity in children’s food preferences as part of the EU-funded project “Edulia - Bringing down barriers to children’s healthy eating”.
Julia holds a master’s degree in Human Nutrition and worked as a research assistant at the Department of Design & Consumer Behavior at the University of Copenhagen, where she conducted research on children’s food preferences and developed research-based teaching material within sensory science for primary schools.
Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliasick/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Gern Huijberts is the global innovation portfolio manager at Cargill, with responsibility for businesses in Europe, the US, Brazil, West-Africa, and Asia-Pacific. In this position, he manages the global quality organization for food safety, quality assurance and quality control as well as regulatory affairs.
In previous roles, he has worked at international food companies like Heineken, H.J. Heinz, and FrieslandCampina, in the fields of Research & Development and Quality Assurance. Throughout his career, he has always had a keen interest in sensory analyses, both as an active member in sensory panels as well as from a research perspective. He is very interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning for applications in the quality assurance of food products.
Gern Huijberts holds an MSc degree in molecular biology from Wageningen University and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is married with two children and lives in Doorn near Utrecht in the Netherlands. In his free time, he likes to take long walks with his wife in the local national park and he plays guitar in a rock band.
Gern on LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/gern-huijberts-84a7331
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Vijay Pravin is the Founder & CEO of bitsCrunch, a Blockchain Analytics and Forensics company focusing on securing the NFT ecosystem. Living in Munich, Germany for the last 10 years, and originally from India.
To date, Vijay has helped raise 6.5M USD from prominent Web3 VCs like Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, Chainlink, Polygon, Crypto.com Capital, Gate.io labs, Hashkey Capital, Borderless Capital, and a few others.
bitsCrunch tackles wash trades in the NFT space, provides price estimation of NFTs via Chainlink’s oracle, and helps brands protect their IP. They work with Mastercard, CoinTelegraph & a few partners on the B2B side. They launched our B2C product: www.UnleashNFTs.com recently, a one-stop place for NFT insights and forensics. They are live across ETH, Polygon, BNB Chain, and AVAX - started indexing Solana.
Previous Work Experience: Siemens, Volkswagen in Germany
Education: Masters-Graduate in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich.
TEDx Speaker - the first Indian to be invited for a TEDx talk in Germany below 30
Awarded as ‘Top 40 Data Scientists under 40’ in India
Nominated as ‘20+ Inspiring Data Scientists to follow on LinkedIn in 2020’ by AI Time Journal from the United States
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijaypravin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VijayPravinM
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Lennox is the CEO & Co-Founder of Satoshi’s Index, a token-gated SaaS platform that automates portfolio management for crypto investors.
In addition to this, he leads product initiatives at Starbucks Corp, and is the co-founder of NFT Seattle, the region's first large scale Web3 conference.
Lennox on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennoxmatsinde
Lennox on Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennoxmatsinde
Lennox on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lennoxtakura/
Newsletter: https://www.noanswers.io/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Luiza is the International Sensory Science Manager at L’Oréal France.
She is a Food Engineer with more than 10 years of experience in Sensory and Consumer Science applied mainly in cosmetics, food, and household product categories.
She has recently been assigned the Data Steward role, being responsible for Sensory Data Acquisition, Management, and Application
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Dr. G.B. (Garmt) Dijksterhuis studied experimental psychology and methodology at the University of Utrecht and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation at the department of Data Theory at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. He has written or co-authored some 150 publications in sensory and consumer science, statistics and psychology. He is one of the founders of the Sensometric society and was its first president, and is a member of the editorial board of the journals Food Quality and Preference, the Journal of Future Foods, and Frontiers in Psychology/Eating Behavior.
He has some 30 years of experience in sensory science and experimental psychology and worked in academia, research institutes, and in the food industry. He has done research on a variety of topics including multisensory perception, consumer (food) choice, and sensometrics.
Garmt taught courses in sensory science and methodology and related topics and has been a guest scientist at several universities and research institutes. He is an invited speaker at many scientific conferences as well as at meetings for a more general audience.
From 2009-2014 he was Honorary Professor at the section Food Design and Consumer Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Garmt is currently teaching at the experimental psychology department of the University of Utrecht.
Garmt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garmt-dijksterhuis-a567045/
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Carlos Velasco is an associate professor at the Department of Marketing, BI Norwegian Business School (Norway), where he co-founded the Centre for Multisensory Marketing. Carlos received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, after which he worked on a number of postdoctoral and consulting projects in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His work is situated at the intersection between Psychology, Marketing, and Human-Computer Interaction, and focuses on understanding, and capitalizing on, our multisensory experiences and their guiding principles. He wrote the book "Multisensory experiences: Where the senses meet technology" and edited the collection "Multisensory packaging: Designing new product experiences". Carlos has worked with a number of companies from around the world on topics such as multisensory experiences, food and drink, branding, and consumer research.
For more information, visit https://carlosvelasco.info/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/velascop/
Twitter: Carlos Velasco (@velascop) / Twitter
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Carlos Gómez–Corona is the Director Human Insights & Sensory at Firmenich. His main responsibilities are to understand the future consumption of proteins, and the perception of natural and sustainable flavors and ingredients. He has conducted research both in academia and the industry, as well as teaching in the area of sensory and consumer science, collaborating with several research groups worldwide. His publications focus mainly on consumption experience, product perception and representation, and social responsibility. He obtained his master’s degree in Sensory & Consumer Research from the University of Burgundy in France, followed by a Ph.D. in Consumer Research at UAM-Mexico, in collaboration with the Centre des Sciences du Gout and ISA Lille. Carlos was awarded the Rose Marie Pangborn Sensory Science Scholarship in 2014 and is part of the editorial board of Food Research International, and editor at Cogent Business & Management.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-gomez-corona-424b22109/
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos_Gomez-Corona
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarlosXOOC
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Founder of a New York-based brand incubator, Mindy Yang is an advisor, investor, growth hacker, curator, and technical designer & creative director of fragranced, flavored, and functional products.
As an expert on sensory sciences, psychology, marketing, brand strategy, wellness, and immersive design, Mindy is passionate about incubating/launching brands/experiences/products by creating unforgettable, emotionally captivating signatures around the world... Making the invisible felt.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindyyang/
World Taste and Smell Day: https://www.tasteandsmell.world/
Personal Website: https://mindyyang.info/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Founder of a New York-based brand incubator, Mindy Yang is an advisor, investor, growth hacker, curator, and technical designer & creative director of fragranced, flavored, and functional products.
As an expert on sensory sciences, psychology, marketing, brand strategy, wellness, and immersive design, Mindy is passionate about incubating/launching brands/experiences/products by creating unforgettable, emotionally captivating signatures around the world... Making the invisible felt.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindyyang/
World Taste and Smell Day: https://www.tasteandsmell.world/
Personal Website: https://mindyyang.info/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Nat Cole is a cryptocurrency and blockchain educator and consultant, working in the crypto & blockchain space for around 5 years. He is currently working on a 'Phygital' NFT Fashion project, mixing high-quality fashion design, sustainable materials, Web3, and embedded technologies.
Nat’s project NFT Clothing Club (NFTCC) is creating a unique high-quality fashion brand and community utilizing Bitcoin and the power of Stacks. His project is primarily focused on creating communities linking between fashion, NFTs, and Bitcoin.
NFTCC’s motto is "Luxury, high quality, unique fashion pieces, for every reality, inspired by Bitcoin, built on Stacks."
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-cole-5b75747b/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigRpic
NFTClothingClub: https://twitter.com/NFTClothingClub
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Nese Yurttas has worked in the field of sensory and consumer science for twenty years including the past fifteen years for Cargill, where she has built Cargill’s sensory capabilities in North America into a world-class capability. Nese leads a global community of sensory practice to build best practices and knowledge across the Globe. Across such a diverse product mix as Cargill’s, Nese must lead a team of scientists using expert sensory knowledge to identify the right sensory methods and experiments to achieve the business strategic needs and critical success factors. Her capability development and project work have helped Cargill develop new products and ingredients such as the Truvia® Table Top (TT) Sweetener and Eversweet Stevia Sweetener from a fermentation source. She lead all sensory panels for the sweetener business and co-developed two patents, one of which resulted in the successful commercializing of the first natural TT sweetener Truvia® in the U.S. Nese’s deep sensory knowledge, contributions to the knowledge of Food Ingredient taste and flavor, team leadership and drive for business excellence has helped Cargill achieve its sensory business goals.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nese-yurttas-7b2a0725/
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Dr. Michelle Niedziela is a behavioral neuroscientist experienced in both academia and industry. Michelle began her career as a post-doctoral fellow at Monell Chemical Senses Center working on research of functional foods. She continued her career at Johnson & Johnson where she specialized in innovation technologies for consumer products. At Mars Chocolate, Michelle worked on global sensory projects, and in her current role as VP of Research and Innovation at HCD Research, Michelle focuses on integrating applied consumer neuroscience tools with traditional sensory methods to measure consumer response with the goal of providing a comprehensive account of consumer decision making. Kathryn Ambroze is a behavioral neuroscientist with experience in consumer research and methodological innovation. She currently works at HCD Research as the Manager of Behavioral and Marketing Sciences focusing on methodological development and innovation applying neuroscience and psychological tools to consumer and market research.
Michelle Niedziela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-niedziela-phd-b581a712/
Kathryn Ambroze on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynambroze
HCD Research: https://www.hcdi.net/
HCD Research Twitter: https://twitter.com/hcdresearchinc
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Amber Case studies the interaction between humans and computers and how technology is changing everyday life. Case is currently a 2021 Mozilla Fellow working on the future of money, alternative business models for the web, and creator compensation. Case is an internationally recognized design advocate and speaker, and the author of four books, including Calm Technology and A Kids Book About Technology. She spent two years as a fellow at MIT’s Center for Civic Media and Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Named one of Inc. Magazine’s 30 under 30 and Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology, Case was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2012 and received the Claude Shannon Innovation Award from Bell Labs. She was also the co-founder and CEO of Geoloqi, a location-based software company acquired by Esri. Twitter: https://twitter.com/caseorganic
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseorganic/
Case Organic website: http://caseorganic.com
Calm Technology: https://calmtech.com/
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Gern Huijberts is the global quality director for Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate, with responsibility for businesses in Europe, the US, Brazil, West-Africa and Asia-Pacific. In this position, he manages the global quality organization for food safety, quality assurance and quality control as well as regulatory affairs.
In previous roles he has worked at international food companies like Heineken, H.J. Heinz and FrieslandCampina in the fields of Research & Development and Quality Assurance. Throughout his career he has always had a keen interest in sensory analyses, both as an active member in sensory panels as well as from a research perspective. He is very interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning for applications in quality assurance of food products.
Gern Huijberts holds a MSc degree in molecular biology from the Wageningen University and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is married with two children and lives in Doorn near Utrecht in the Netherlands. In his free time, he likes to take long walks with his wife in the local national park and he plays guitar in a rock band.
Gern on LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/gern-huijberts-84a7331
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Dr. Vanessa Rios de Souza holds a Ph.D. in Food Science and has over 10 years of experience in R&D, consumer and sensory research across multiple food product categories and functions, with a strong background in food science and food processing. She has extensive experience in industrial, academic, and research settings.
Vanessa works as a Computational Sensory Science Consultant at Aigora and before her role there she worked as a professor, researcher and as an independent CPG consultant for several years in Brazil, where she is from. She has presented her work in many conferences and has published 4 book chapters and 65+ peer-reviewed papers throughout her career.
Vanessa Rios de Souza on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/vanessardsouza
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Dr. Ruth Brown is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University and an expert practitioner of state-of-the-art data science tools and the founder of the HOPE Lab. She is also the Co-Founder and Senior Advisor at Aigora. Dr. Ruth Brown-Ennis received her Ph.D. in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Her general research interests focus on better understanding the interplay between environmental and biological factors in the development of depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress and using these findings to improve mental health care. She has a particular interest in the role of these factors in people with developmental disabilities.
Dr. Ruth Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-brown-ennis/
HOPE Lab website: https://rampages.us/hopelab/
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Keir Finlow-Bates is the author of "Move Over Brokers: Here Comes The Blockchain" (https://mybook.to/moveover), the founder of Chainfrog Limit (one of Finland's earliest blockchain startups), and a prolific inventor of blockchain technologies with 43 patents to his name.
Becoming interested in blockchain in late 2009, he has researched it full-time from 2016 onwards. Before that most of his 20-year career was spent as a software test engineer and manager, with a few short stints as a mathematics lecturer and a technical writer.
Keir lives in Finland with his Finnish wife and eight children, none of whom have left home yet.
You can find a collection of his short videos on blockchain concepts at his YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/thinklair) if you want to learn more, and he regularly posts articles and thoughts on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/keirf/).
Keir on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keirf/
Keir on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thinklair
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Dr. Tian Yu is a Computational Sensory Science Consultant at Aigora. Tian holds a Ph.D. in taste neuroscience, focusing on signal transduction. After a postdoctoral fellowship researching brain lipid metabolism, and an instructor role delving into sour taste sensing, Dr. Yu devoted herself to sensory and consumer science research to combine her love of neuroscience and expertise in analyzing data. Tian has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter. She has presented her work at international conferences and received broad recognition for her work.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tianyu1037/
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As President/Owner of Storlietelling Jean uses story-based techniques to design and facilitate highly engaging strategic planning, innovation, and team-building sessions. She also runs training programs in business storytelling skills for clients that span boutique consulting firms to Fortune 500 companies across a range of industries. Jean has facilitated innovation in consumer packaged goods, supplier, and direct marketing companies, focusing on building their innovation pipelines. She worked at General Mills for over a decade, where her knack for distilling complex content into compelling communications helped business teams drive business growth for consumer brands like Cheerios and Yoplait. As a child, she loved reading books, playing dress-up, and solving puzzles, foreshadowing the work she does now-solving problems with stories.
Mimi is the leader of Global Strategic Insights for IFF Nourish. She is responsible for inspiring and motivating creative teams by bringing actionable insights to life and facilitating end-to-end innovation. Prior to this, Mimi was the Principal and Owner of Sherlock Creative Thinking, a creativity and innovation consultancy that served a variety of clients and industries across the globe. Through her highly engaging and experiential approach, Mimi helped business teams in companies like Visa, L'Oreal, and Nestle crack the code on gnarly problems . . . and enjoy the process. She has been a leader and facilitation trainer for the Creative Problem Solving Institute for close to thirty years. As a natural ideator, if you give Mimi a challenge she's likely to spew out twenty-five ideas in under five minutes.
Jean Storlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanstorlie/
Mimi Sherlock on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimisherlock
Storlietelling.com: https://storlietelling.com/
Book website: https://onceuponinnovation.com/
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Dr. Delarue’s research focuses on methods to measure sensory perception and preferences and on their effective use in food design. He seeks to develop high validity consumer-oriented methods. In particular, his research explores the role of context in hedonic measures using immersive environments and digital technologies. He also works to develop and validate rapid and flexible descriptive analysis methods with applications to new product development and consumer research. Using these methods, he seeks to understand the sensory determinants of food preferences and to find levers to drive healthy and sustainable food behaviors.
Formerly an Associate Professor at AgroParisTech in the food science and technology joint research unit with INRA and Université Paris-Saclay, he has served as the Chair of the French Society for Sensory Analysis (SFAS) and of the European Sensory Science Society (E3S).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdelarue/
University: https://foodscience.ucdavis.edu/people/julien-delarue#/
Metaverse article Julien mentioned: https://aigora.cc/2ZRHZg6
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Nicolas Hartmann is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Vly. Based in Berlin, the FoodTech startup aims to disrupt the dairy industry by developing novel alternatives using food science, fermentation, and data. Nicolas holds a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford and is passionate about a vegan lifestyle.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-hartmann-4b594b78/
Website: https://www.vlyfoods.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vlyfoods/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VlyFoods
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Bo Li is currently a Senior Behavioral Scientist at Dell Technologies where he leverages behavioral science to create better customer experiences for consumers who shop for Dell products online. Previously, Bo was a Behavioral Economist at Eli Lilly & Company where Bo conducted behavioral science research to help patients be more adherent to medication. Bo started his career as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Louisville. Bo obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle in Marketing. His work has appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Retailing, Marketing Letters, and several other premier business journals and conference proceedings. Bo’s research interest lies in the intersection of emotions, persuasion, and behavioral change.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xboli
Instagram: @CBTalkChina
Medium: https://medium.com/@cbtalkchina
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Dawn is a skilled Sensory and Consumer Scientist with 15+ years of hands-on experience designing, executing, and interpreting multi-faceted research studies to solve business challenges. She is passionate about exploring data sets to make stories come to life.
Dawn studied mathematics and chemistry at DePauw University and received a Ph.D. in food science with a sensory emphasis from UC Davis. Dawn’s doctoral research focused on the relationships between vineyard yield and Cabernet Sauvignon flavor. While at Davis, she helped teach the inaugural year of the UC Davis distance learning Applied Sensory Science and Consumer Testing certificate program.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-chapman-4356793/
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Daniel Protz is the Founder & CEO of FlavorWiki. He holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford Business School. Daniel started his career in computer-driven commodity trading before moving into the e-commerce and digital industries. Since 2015, Daniel has been working enthusiastically towards democratizing the world of consumer understanding and building a better purchase experience for consumers around the world. His professional background includes top global firms like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Groupon, where he designed, built, and implemented technology to support inventory, customer service, content publishing and pricing automation for 1 billion+ USD e-commerce businesses. He’s a keen digital enthusiast and strong believer that FlavorWiki is building the premier consumer review and discovery platform to support the digital brands of tomorrow.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-protz-707b772a/
Company: https://business.flavorwiki.com/
Twitter: @FlavorWiki
Company LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flavorwiki/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Benjamin is a technology enthusiast with a passion for empowering developers to build innovative solutions. A long-time open source advocate, he co-founded the Eclipse IoT Working Group in 2011 and grew, from scratch, a vibrant open-source community of hundreds of developers and dozens of deeply engaged companies. He is currently working at Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager for Azure IoT, where he is leading developer engagement initiatives with some of the top communities and companies in the embedded, AI, and open hardware space.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamincabe/
GitHub link: https://github.com/kartben/artificial-nose
IoT for beginners curriculum: https://github.com/microsoft/IoT-For-Beginners
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kartben
Blog : https://blog.benjamin-cabe.com/
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Dr. Helene Hopfer is the Rasmussen Career Development Professor and Assistant Professor of Food Science at Penn State where her research group studies product- and human-inherent factors that affect perception. Her research focuses on the human-food interface, and how food composition and food structure affect human perception and food choice, particularly, aroma and flavor. Combining human sensory and consumer science with analytical chemistry, materials science, and multivariate statistics, her recent and ongoing projects fall into three broad areas, (1) Sensory Mixture Effects for Improving Foods, (2) Linking Human Perception to Plant Genetics, and (3) Differences in Food Quality Perception.
Dr. Hopfer has degrees in polymer science & engineering, and chemistry, and studied under Hildegarde Heymann at UC Davis as a postdoc. She is also the program chair of Penn State’s graduate certificate in Sensory & Consumer Science, a fully online 12-credit degree program developed for working individuals to address the shortage of skilled sensory & consumer science professionals.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helene-hopfer-98909744/
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John Fuisz is the CEO of Veriphix. John has a diverse background, with an undergraduate degree in Physics from Georgetown, a JD from Catholic University, a Legal Masters from George Washington. John was previously a board member at Fuisz Technologies, a drug delivery company that helped originate soft chew vitamins. During that time John was also an IP litigator and consulted on IP strategy. Now, at Veriphix, John studies belief change in population with applications to market research.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-fuisz/
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Valerie is MMR’s Global Sensory Director, leading one of the largest and most innovative teams of sensory experts in the world, with sensory hubs in Europe, the US and Asia and with over 20 trained sensory panels.
Valerie grew up in the south of France and trained as a food scientist in Burgundy, where she immediately fell in love with Sensory, as a discipline that uniquely blends the rigor of science, experimental design and statistics with the fascinating world of the psychology of human perception. Valerie has been working as a sensory and consumer research partner and consultant for over 25 years, with many of the major global food and drink, beauty and other FMCG companies, living in the UK, Australia and now the US. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a passion to apply sensory and consumer research approaches in delivering business relevant, tangible and actionable recommendations, and pushing her teams to constantly innovate and adapt in response to clients’ ever changing challenges.
From her background and travels, Valerie truly appreciates and enjoys holistic sensory experiences, and as MMR’s Global Sensory Director she now focuses on making the power of sensory more widely accessible to help a wider range of functions and industries, and help create product and service experiences that delight consumers, and lead to long-term market impact.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vmialon/
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Dr. Nick Zacharov is a lead technologist at FORCE Technology, SenseLab, Denmark. With an academic background in electroacoustics, acoustics, and signal processing, Nick has broad industrial experience in the audio profession. Having held engineering and managerial posts at Nokia and Genelec, Nick co-founded FORCE Technologies SenseLab in 2007, providing world-class listening tests and sensory evaluation services to the audio community.
He holds several audio patents and has more than 90 major publications to his name. Nick is the co-author of “Perceptual Audio Evaluation – theory, method and application”, and editor of the book “Sensory Evaluation of Sound”, both acknowledged textbooks in the field.
LinkedIn: https://fi.linkedin.com/in/nick-zacharov
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Professor Charles Spence is a world-famous experimental psychologist with a specialization in neuroscience-inspired multisensory design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies across the globe since establishing the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Department of Experimental Psychology, at Oxford University in 1997. Prof. Spence has published over 1,000 academic articles and edited or authored 15 books including, in 2014, the Prose prize-winning “The perfect meal”, and the international bestseller “Gastrophysics: The new science of eating” (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique from Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie. His much-anticipated new book Sensehacking was published in 2021.
Much of Prof. Spence’s work focuses on the design of enhanced multisensory food and drink experiences, through collaborations with chefs, baristas, mixologists, chocolatiers, perfumers, and the food and beverage, and flavour and fragrance industries. Prof. Spence has worked extensively in the world of multisensory experiential wine and coffee and has also worked extensively on the question of how technology will transform our dining/drinking experiences in the future.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timcloss/
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Yizhou Ma is a PhD candidate at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His PhD research focuses on the adaptive control of 3D food printing. In the past, Yizhou worked as a R&D scientist at Gastrograph AI and obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in food science. His professional pursuits center around data-driven research and sustainable system design for food productions. He is also the co-host of the podcast "Food in the Hood," where Yizhou and his friend Amanda Sia discuss the science of food, its current practice, education, and future development.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybenma/
3-D Printed Pasta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvREyWTbqMc
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Liz Glenn is a Sr. Sensory Scientist in the Consumer Product Intelligence Team at Land O’Lakes, Inc. The team’s mission is to translate human perception and consumer insights into product experiences that delight consumers. Liz leads product guidance research for both innovation and established products for the butter & spreads business. Working for a farmer-owned food & agriculture cooperative celebrating its 100th year presents intriguing product development challenges—how do you improve upon butter? A born foodie and lover of people, Liz revels in the intersection of applied science, statistics, psychology, and food research. Sensory Science is the perfect blend of all four!
Liz has an MS in Psychometrics & Quantitative Psychology, a BS in Environmental Studies, and a Post-Baccalaureate Certification in Forensic Science.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-glenn-75758168
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In the 90s we had Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsey usher in the era of the shouty, angry, passionate celebrity chefs. By the early 2000s, Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal brought about a change in the way we look at fine dining experiences and culinary creativity. And to date, their disciples (the top restaurants in the world) continue to expand upon their work.
So what is the future? What is the next leap forward in Gastronomy?
A chef who believes in “improving global wellbeing through innovations in gastronomy.” A chef who will change the way we eat. A chef who after working his way up in Michelin star restaurants has spent close to a decade collaborating with some of the UK’s leading scientists and academic institutions on understanding our multisensory relationship with food and its functional role in our health and wellbeing. Introducing Chef Jozef Youssef, founder of Kitchen Theory.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jozefyoussef/
Kitchen Theory: https://kitchen-theory.com/
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Martin Kern holds a PhD in agricultural science, is a certified enologist, and has been a Managing Director of SAM International since 2005. Today, SAM is a member of Eurofins Scientific with more than 15 of its own facilities, where it forms an International Business Line providing Sensory and Consumer Research to its customers worldwide with a global network of about 120 partners in more than 65 countries.
Martin provides valuable consulting in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry, Food and Non-Food, supporting product success through consumer satisfaction. Together with his team, Martin has developed new methods and approaches and contributed to the further development of Sensory and Consumer Science. Some examples of his work include the Ideal Sensory Trajectory, Context Setting Research, and Value Scoring. Martin is also a member of the management board of the European Sensory Network.
“It all started with learning how to make good wine: my professional background is in wine making and enology. Today I am passionate about professional Sensory and Consumer Research. I take great pride in being the voice of the consumer, listening to and understanding them, translating findings into “actionable intelligence” for the “Fast Moving Consumer Goods-Industry.” Martin Kern
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-kern-289ab416/
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Nazimah Hamid is a Professor of Food Science at Auckland University of Technology. Her research encompasses how processing techniques can influence physical, chemical, and flavour qualities of food. Her expertise in sensory and flavour science uses a combination of sensory and instrumental flavour analysis to examine and predict the relationships between food composition, sensory perception, and flavour of a variety of processed and minimally processed foods. She has worked with a variety of foods - from sea urchin roe, black foot abalone, clams, apricots, and cherries in New Zealand to ‘Durian’ (commonly referred to as the King of Fruits) and jackfruit in Malaysia, and earlier raspberries in Scotland. She also researches the role of auditory cues on flavour and the consumer perception of food.
University Website: https://www.aut.ac.nz/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nazimah-hamid-48532038/
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Lori Rothman is the owner of Lori Rothman Consulting, where she helps companies develop consumer-preferred products and packages. She has a B.S. from Cornell University in Nutritional Science and a M.S. from the University of California, Davis in Food Science. Lori is also an adjunct instructor in Sensory Evaluation at Dominican University, in River Forest, IL.
Lori is a Food Scientist and an experienced professional in the areas of Consumer Science and Sensory Evaluation, specializing in consumer products and packaging. Lori is known for leveraging consumer and sensory insights to drive product innovation and business growth. Her experience includes strategy development, department creation and staffing, sensory facility/infrastructure, cross-functional and cross-country relationship building, budgeting, and delivering business-relevant results.
Lori has over 30 years of experience, with successful roles in Consumer and Sensory Science management and technical leadership for consumer packaged goods companies. She is credited with two Packaging Design Patents and a Trade secret, as well as the Charles M. Dudley Medal for ASTM publications that have impacted their field. In 2018, Lori produced a webinar ‘Getting Maximum Impact from your Sensory/Consumer Science Team’ in conjunction with the Kraft Alumni Network, and in 2020 a webinar ‘Sensory Science and the Research Chef’ for the Research Chefs Association.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorirothman/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Trey Sanders, RD and certified food scientist, is a Research and Development Manager for Bulletproof 360. Trey graduated with undergraduate degrees in sensory science and dietetics before completing his master's in Food Product Development, Modification & Acceptability. He has spent the last 10 years integrating sensory science and nutrition into product development, including roles at Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds and Continental Mills. Trey’s previous sensory experience has included employee panel program development, consumer field testing and analysis, panel training, and external consumer coordination through focus groups and central location testing. His current role involves overseeing all aspects of the sensory program and guiding the strategic use of its principles to drive positive business outcomes.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trey-sanders-ms-rd-cfs-604a8113/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Dr. John Prescott is director of TasteMatters Research & Consulting, and author of Taste Matters: Why We Like The Foods We Do. Since 2014, he has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Florence, Italy, where he has been an external adviser to, and collaborator on, the multi-centre Italian Taste project. John has a conjoint professorial appointment in the psychology department of the University of Newcastle (Australia).
John has extensive experience teaching full and short courses in sensory/consumer science and in psychology topics related to perception, cognition, and learning.
John has more than 120 scientific publications in areas such as genetic variations in taste perception, cross-cultural chemosensory perceptions and preferences, flavour perception, food preferences, odour learning and memory, and emotions. John is past President and Secretary of the Australasian Association for Chemosensory Science. He is the current editor of Food Quality and Preference, and also serves on the editorial board of Chemosensory Perception.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tastematters/
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Kevin Kantono is a Sensory Scientist in Arla based in the Arla Innovation Center in Aarhus, Denmark. Kevin graduated with his doctorate degree from Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand and now is the principal sensory scientist for Arla's business transformation program Calcium. He’s also leading Arla’s sensory and consumer science research program in collaboration with local and international universities.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkevink/
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Julia Tyrpin is the Director of Sensory Science for Griffith Foods North America. She is a seasoned sensory professional with over 30 years’ experience in the food industry; with the last 20 focused in Sensory Science. Julia has held sensory roles in CPG companies such as Wrigley and Diageo as well as on the supplier side with Product Dynamics (currently Brisan Group). Her current role at Griffith Foods includes managing sensory teams in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. that support Griffith Foods in creating seasonings, coating systems, marinades, and sauces across a variety of product categories.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-tyrpin-670635174/
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Michel’s career has focused on Consumer & Product Research & Sensory Design. He has held a number of senior research positions in the industry, including Director of Insights & Sensory Design at Danone. He is also a former Head of Product research & Sensory Design capability at Unilever.
Since becoming an Independent Consultant, Michel shared his expertise with research teams around the globe. His focus is to help teams overcome their challenges by bringing an external and creative viewpoint to deliver people and product insights that will drive business decisions and product design.
Michel has been one of the first in the industry to make the Sensory & Consumer Science function an Insights powerhouse. Since the start of his career, he has been a strong advocate for People Centric Innovation projects to launch products that overcome consumer’s tension and truly enhance people’s lives.
LinkedIn: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/michel-bonnet-2015
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Dr. Thierry Worch, a sensometrician at FrieslandCampina, started life in sensory as a project manager at OP&P Product Research in Utrecht, The Netherlands, before completing his PhD in in collaboration with Pieter Punter, Sébastien Lê, and Jérôme Pagès.
At the end of 2012, Thierry joined Anne Hasted’s team at Qi Statistics, where he ran clients’ projects and gave diverse trainings. With Qi Statistics, he also continued a long collaboration with EyeQuestion, where he produced the R-routines included in the EyeOpenR software. Pivoting in 2019, Thierry joined the Global Sensory Department of Friesland-Campina, where he provides his expertise in Sensory and Consumer Methods, Sensometrics, and Data Science.
Besides publishing various papers related to Sensometrics, he is also the co-author with Sébastien Lê of “Analyzing sensory data with R,” and is currently working on “Introduction to Data Science for Sensory and Consumer Scientists” together with Dr. Julien Delarue and Dr. John Ennis.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/thierry-worch/25/187/b04
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Amy Bowen is director of consumer insights at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, where she leads a group of industry experts in sensory and consumer science with backgrounds in biology, food science, psychology, oenology, and culinary arts to offer contract and collaborative research services.
Amy’s research focuses on understanding the drivers that impact consumer preference and choice for horticultural products to create value-added results that inform breeding program selections, brand development, new variety introductions, and commercialization.
Amy has a PhD in Biological Sciences with a specialization in Plant Science, Oenology and Viticulture from Brock University. She is also a certified sommelier through the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-bowen-phd-4266257b/
Website: https://www.vinelandresearch.com/
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Lisa Beck, Founder at Insight Factory, believes that genuine curiosity and empathetic interactions lead to an in-depth understanding of consumers. To uncover and explore actionable insights, she strives to interact with consumers in their time and space, researching life as it happens, both in the off-line and on-line world.
Drawing on a unique background in product development, marketing, sensory and consumer insights, Lisa observes consumer behavior, discovers insights and converts those insights into new and improved products and ultimately more profits. Lisa has over 20 years experience at Colgate-Palmolive and over 10 years experience consulting with sensory and consumer insight professionals around the world.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacbeck
Website: http://www.insightfactoryllc.com/
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Michael Meyners is a Principal Scientist at Procter & Gamble. With a PhD in Statistics, Michael also regularly teaches at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. He is a past Chair of the Sensometric Society and serves as Associate Editor of Food Quality and Preference. Michael has numerous publications related to the statistical design and analysis of sensory and consumer data, and provides a wide range of statistical support in his day-to-day work at P&G.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-meyners-9a445017/
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Nimesha Ranasinghe is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing and Information Science and directs the Multisensory Interactive Media lab at the University of Maine. Nimesha completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, in 2013. Nimesha’s research interests include Multisensory Interfaces, Human-Computer Interaction, and Augmented and Virtual Reality. He is well-known for his Digital Taste and Virtual Cocktail inventions and has been featured in numerous media worldwide, including New Scientist, New York Times, Time Magazine, BBC Radio, Discovery Channel, and Reuters. Furthermore, he has published his work in several prestigious academic conferences and journals, including the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM conference on Multimedia, and Journal of Human-Computer Studies. He has received numerous awards for his research works. In particular, in 2014, his work on Digital Lollipop was selected as one of the world's ten best innovations by the netexplo forum in UNESCO HQ, Paris.
MIM lab: www.mimlab.info
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nimesha
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Jeanna Isham has 15+ years of audio experience. Starting in film composition and production music, she evolved into the world of sonic branding and sound identities as a creator, strategist and thought leader. Her company, Dreamr Productions, creates audio identities for companies and brands, as well as consults and educates brands and marketers on sound in marketing and its best practices. Jeanna also produces, hosts, and edits the Sound In Marketing Podcast.
Dreamr Productions is a subsidiary of Stage Ham Entertainment LLC, a full service audio/video production company based out of Pasadena, CA.
Course: www.soundinmarketing.com
Website: www.dreamrproductions.com
Blog: https://jeanna-isham.medium.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannaisham/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jeanna_Isham
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-in-marketing/id1467112373
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Dr. Isabelle Lesschaeve is a sensory and consumer scientist with 25+ years of experience. Isabelle held positions with increasing responsibilities in academia and R&D departments in France, Canada, and the US, most recently as the Director of Product Guidance at The Coca-Cola Company.
Isabelle is the author and co-author of 50+ peer-reviewed articles. She excels in and loves designing learning plans to unlock complex questions related to consumer consumption behaviors.
Isabelle pivoted her career recently to focus on two of her passions, wine & education, through InnoVinum, her consulting company. She publishes weekly articles on her website winetasting-demystified.com, and just created an online course platform, InnoVinum Academy, to train wine enthusiasts to taste wine using her sensory science framework.
Website: https://www.winetasting-demystified.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winetastingdemystified/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilesschaeve/
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Leah Hamilton is a PhD Candidate at Virginia Tech, working in the sensory science lab with Dr. Jacob Lahne. Leah researches method development in sensory science and has a particular focus on the application of computer science and natural language processing to food flavor language. She received her bachelor's in Food Science at NC State University, and then spent two years studying cucumber pickle off-flavors in a USDA lab.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-hamilton-77888ba5/
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Dr. Lorre Atlan currently works as a Data Scientist at GSK. Lorre was hired as a Future Leaders Program associate, which provides leadership expertise through 3 rotations throughout GSK. She has tackled various machine learning problems in Pharma R&D and Manufacturing. In her current role in Consumer Health R&D, she builds machine learning models to help sensory scientists improve the consumer sensory experience. Lorre revels in strategically employing machine learning and Python programming for tangible returns to patients and colleagues. Before GSK, Lorre earned her doctorate in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and her bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latlan1/
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Dr. Kli Pappas is a Manager of Data Science at the Colgate-Palmolive company. In his current role, he founded a group called Predictive Innovation which is focused on applying data science and software engineering techniques to accelerate innovation processes. His team focuses on building and deploying algorithms to empower scientists and marketers to build better products faster. Kli received his Ph.D in Chemistry from Princeton University in 2016. His thesis work focused on bridging the gap between first-principles thermochemistry, computational chemistry, and experimental science.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iraklispappas
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Dr. Daniel Ennis is the President of The Institute for Perception. Danny has more than 40 years of experience working on product testing theory and applications for consumer products. He holds doctorates both in food science and in mathematical & statistical psychology. He is also a Professional Statistician accredited by the American Statistical Association. Among his many accomplishments, Danny has published extensively in the chemical senses and on mathematical models for human decision-making. Danny is a recipient of the Sensory and Consumer Sciences Achievement Award from IFT and also the ASTM David R. Peryam Award in recognition for “outstanding contributions to the field of basic and applied sensory science.” Danny consults globally and has served as an expert witness in a wide variety of advertising cases.
Company website: https://www.ifpress.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ennis-6a3a3a36/
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Sara trained in Denmark and the UK and currently leads a team of sensory and consumer researchers at the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research. She has an extensive international research network and is particularly interested in consumer behaviour and research methodology. Sara has worked with several global food and beverage companies, and is a regular speaker at conferences. Sara co-chaired the 9th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium and currently serves as editor for the journal Food Quality and Preference.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-jaeger-57a3554/
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Janavi Kumar is a Digital Senior Sensory Scientist at General Mills, where she focuses on experimentation with digital tools and new technologies to enhance the way we collect and utilize sensory and consumer data for decision making.
Prior to her current role, Janavi served as a Sensory Scientist at General Mills in strategic product and consumer research related to innovation, renovation, and quality. She has led sensory research for a variety of different product platforms and initiatives in her role with the Product Guidance and Insights group.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janavi/
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Karen Graves is the Senior Director of Sensory & Consumer Sciences at Bell Flavors & Fragrances. She is passionate about integrating sensory properties and consumer needs to guide and validate creative development and innovation.
Prior to joining Bell Flavors & Fragrances, Karen spent more than a dozen years at Kraft Foods as a Sensory Manager. At Kraft, Karen managed the Sensory Evaluation Center and led Sensory and Consumer Research for Philadelphia, DiGiorno, Jell-O, Velveeta, and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karengraves03/
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Sai Sreenivas Kodur is the Co-Founder & CTO of Spoonshot, a technology startup supporting food innovation intelligence. Sai is specialised in compilers and machine learning, with a working experience in internet technology companies solving the problems of search and recommendations. Sai worked at Zomato, India's largest food ordering and restaurant discovery platform, as a Software Engineer in search, where he re-built its search relevance and ranking models from scratch to improve restaurant results. Later he worked at Myntra, India's biggest online fashion store, as Senior Software Engineer, leading search and style services and working on various technological functions. Currently, he is spearheading engineering and data science at Spoonshot to build an innovation intelligence and analytics platform for the Food & Beverage industry.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sai-sreenivas-k-7b748b13/
Spoonshot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spoonshot
Spoonshot YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeYD1ggy05AXdp6ZiElciwQ
Spoonshot company website: https://spoonshot.com/
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Dr. Christer Volk is a full-time specialist at SenseLab with a PhD from Aalborg University in Denmark with a thesis entitled “Prediction of perceptual audio reproduction characteristics.”
Christer’s tasks include: helping clients formulate test requirements, designing listening tests for perceptual audio evaluation, analysing data, improving SenseLab’s proprietary software SenseLabOnline with special focus on the statistics module, contributing to Audio Engineering Society conferences, and research activities in government-funded projects.
Christer is the current coordinator of the Psychoacoustics group in the Danish Acoustical Society and he is also a reviewer for both the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and Acta Acustica.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christervolk/
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Patrick Flanagan is an Expert Audio Experience Scientist at Logitech. His primary research areas are in the perception of spatial audio processing, psychoacoustics, acoustics, and signal processing. Patrick has co-authored a series of papers on the Evaluation of Binaural Renderers, and has been a member of the Audio Engineering Society since 2004. Before joining Logitech, Patrick was VP of Audio Architecture at THX.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfaudio/
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Dr. Zata Vickers is a professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota. Her research encompasses the spheres of sensory evaluation of foods and of food acceptability. She has focused her research on such topics as crispness, astringency, sensory-specific satiety, long term acceptability of foods, using food to improve mood, and methods research related to topics such as palate cleansers and odor mixtures. She directs the Sensory Center at the University of Minnesota that provides sensory testing services to researchers within the University and to other Universities and private businesses. She also teaches an introductory course in Food Science and courses about the sensory evaluation of foods.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zata-vickers-6915763/
University page: https://twin-cities.umn.edu/
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Originally from Iowa, Tiffany Pitra relocated to Yakima, Washington in 2010 where she immediately fell in love with the hop industry. Tiffany holds a B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa and in 2014, she completed the UC Davis Applied Sensory and Consumer Science Certificate while building her first raw materials sensory program. She continues to be very active in the ASBC Sensory Subcommittee, helping validate sensory methods and hosting workshops at annual meetings. At Yakima Chief Hops, she is fortunate to align her professional goals with personal interests as she is passionate about hop quality, sensory education, and volunteering in the wider Yakima community.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-pitra-3a98588a/
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Denise Pohlhaus leads a team of data enthusiasts within GSK Consumer Health. Denise has a PhD in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill and conducted her postdoctoral studies at UCSF. She started off as a computational chemist doing pre-clinical drug discovery within GSK Pharma R&D where she applied physics-based methods and cheminformatics techniques to drug discovery problems -- resulting in patent applications and publications.
Denise then moved to GSK Consumer Health to build and execute statistical capabilities for a team of consumer innovation and sensory scientists. In her current role, she uses traditional statistical methods and advanced analytic approaches to understand the desired consumer sensory experience and to help guide product development scientists on how to formulate products that exceed consumer expectations. Denise is passionate about building processes and strategies to ensure data are clean, standardized and high quality to ensure the best predictive models can be derived from them.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dteotico/
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Steve Keller is Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate at Pandora. Prior to joining Pandora, Steve was the founder and CEO of iV, an audio consultancy based in Nashville that specialized in the strategy, content, research and management necessary for successful audio branding initiatives.
Steve is recognized as one of the foremost experts in the field of audio branding, actively engaged in projects that explore the power of sound to shape perceptions and influence behavior. Recent experiments include an examination of the relationship between sound and taste (conducted with Oxford’s Crossmodal
Research Laboratory), an exploration into the existence of audio archetypes (conducted with Goldsmiths University London) and demonstrating the effects of source bias on evaluations of music aesthetics and worth (conducted with The Technical University of Berlin). Steve is also a part of the think tank serving Chef Jozef Youssef’s London based Kitchen Theory, lending his sonic expertise to the development of gastrophysics experiences for brands and consumers alike.
In addition to a degree in Psychology with a focus on research, social psychology and group dynamics, Steve has over 30 years of experience in the music industry as a producer, remixer, composer, independent label executive, music publisher and manager. Forever the student, he is the 2017 recipient of the iHeartMedia Scholarship for Leadership in Audio Innovation, and is currently completing an Executive MBA through the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, focused on how brands can more effectively measure and predict returns on audio investments.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/audioalchemist_
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevekeller1/
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Dr. Stella Salisu Hickman, currently Vice President Sensory & Insights at Brisan Group, has over 18 years of experience in the flavor and fragrance industry. Stella holds a Doctorate degree in Organization & Management, a Masters’ degree in Biochemistry and a B.S. in Analytical Chemistry.
She started her career at IFF. From there her career led her to sensory management at Coca-Cola, to building a global sensory program at Martek/DSM Nutritional Products, and an international opportunity as Global Sensory Director at McCain Foods.
Stella’s love for fragrance led her to pursue a role as Senior Director of Fragrance Development with Belle Aire Creations where she developed winning fragrances and created programs associating instrumental correlations with different scents.
Stella’s strengths include building sensory programs, trained panels, facility infrastructure, insights that lead to product innovation, and correlating sensory findings to analytical instruments.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stellasalisu/
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Jonathan Million is an innovative and insightful technical research expert, with vast experience across product testing, sensory, and claims methodology creation. Curiosity makes him ask questions, and the search for solutions drives the innovative values that have built Blue Yonder. Jonathan loves working with teams who drive positive change by pushing boundaries, building eco-systems that deliver positive impact and innovate the path to lean, agile working systems that accelerate client journeys and brand growth.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-million-7a41b812/
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David Sime directs AR and VR activities for Oncor Reality and has led Digital Marketing, Video, Augmented and Virtual Reality projects across five countries and twenty-five distinct industries. With over 20 years’ experience in demonstrating the quantifiable benefits of digital media in energy, hospitality, education and medicine, David works with Google, Scottish Enterprise and the CIM to apply emerging technology such as Virtual and Augmented Reality to meet new and existing organisational challenges.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsime/
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Dr. Christine Van Dongen is an experimental psychologist who has enjoyed an extensive career in the sensory evaluation field, helping companies make products that work for consumers. Her early career consisted of teaching experimental psychology at various universities and doing research in sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes. Her career as a sensory professional has involved research on a variety of sensory questions such as discrimination methodologies, team tastings, and how sensory creates and delivers value. She actively contributes to various professional organizations such as ASTM, ISO and SSP to share best practices and standards in the sensory field. She is currently a Fellow at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities working in the Sensory Center to create a bridge between the academic and the business world.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-van-dongen-90a2b012/
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Dr. Qian Janice Wang is an assistant professor of food science at Aarhus University. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the role of the brain sensory system and its connection to flavour perception and eating behaviour, in order to gain a deeper understanding of why people eat what they do, and to encourage behaviour change for a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. To achieve this goal, she works to develop new ways to evaluate the consumer experience - from opinion mining to virtual reality to biometric measurements.
Janice completed her PhD studies at Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford, and holds a master’s degree from the MIT Media Lab. Her background spans computer science, interaction design, experimental psychology, and sensory science. She works with all food products but has a special interest and expertise in wine.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qian-janice-wang-bb8bb37a/
University page: https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/qian-janice-wang(07232f11-92e3-4664-a680-cbcc492709a1).html
Homepage: http://www.qianjanicewang.com/
Twitter: @rbrainengineer
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Meghan earned her BS degree in Food Science from Michigan State University and an MS in Food Science and Technology from Oregon State University studying hop chemistry and sensory. Meghan has five years of experience managing the sensory program at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. covering both the Chico, CA, and Mills River, NC, breweries. Her group is involved with daily quality tastings and sensory evaluations that support research, innovation and new brand development. Meghan is an active member of the American Society of Brewing Chemists and Society of Sensory Professionals, and is passionate about sharing best practices along with being on the forefront of the latest developments in sensory and consumer research.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-peltz-4a121514/
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Dr. Alexandra (Alex) Pierce-Feldmeyer is a sensory scientist at Mane, Inc., where her research interests include how psychology influences flavor perception and how we can better measure reactions to foods and beverages, including implicit and explicit measures of human behavior. Alex completed her PhD at Ohio State University in sensory evaluation and psychophysics, assessing the functional or cognitive benefits from food and food ingredients.
Homepage: https://www.mane.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-feldmeyer-8436104a/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alexpierce1
Medium: https://medium.com/@alexfeldmeyer
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Stan Knoops is the Global CI Director at IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances). Stan has over 12 years of global experience at the creative interface of R&D, Marketing and consumer behavior. He has degrees in Food Science, Food Marketing, and Economics. At the start of his career, Stan had the opportunity to work closely with some of the most innovative thought leaders in sensory research such as Pieter Punter and Harry Lawless. Currently Stan leads the consumer research program for the fabric category for IFF. Stan is a member of the board for the Dutch Market Research Association (MOA).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanknoops/
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Thierry Lageat is the Co-founder of Eurosyn, a Sensory and Consumer testing agency. Eurosyn tests prototypes and improves sensory experiences for a wide range of companies, everything from Chanel to Ferrari to Nestle. In 1994 Thierry was the first in France to use sensory science for non-food products, including within the auto industry. In addition to his 25-year career in sensory science, Thierry also founded the Hoo-Ha Festival in 2008 which aims to shake up disciplinary boundaries and create new connections within the sensory science community.
Homepage: http://www.eurosyn.fr/home.html
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lageat/
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Since earning her master’s in food science from the University of California, Davis in 2012, Ali has been a part of New Belgium’s Sensory program and became the Sensory manager there in 2019. During this time she has run finished product and in process panels and trainings for quality assurance as well as implemented descriptive analysis and sour beer panels for product development. The system of training and panelist performance tracking she developed provides robust, actionable data to ensure only top-quality beer is produced. Most recently she has been expanding a consumer studies program for both quality assurance and marketing. As a brewing sensory expert, Ali has spoken at multiple brewing conferences,authored methods for both ASTM and ASBC, and continues to research new methods and best practices, keeping New Belgium at the forefront of sensory science.
Homepage: https://www.newbelgium.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schultzali/
Twitter: @newbelgium
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Dr. Curtis Luckett is an assistant professor of food science at the University of Tennessee. He got his M.S. and Ph.D. in food science from the University of Arkansas. Since joining the University of Tennessee, Curtis has built a research program in which food texture is a cornerstone. However, Curtis’ lab has many evolving research interests and does additional work on sensory methodology, cross-modal correspondences, and olfaction.
Homepage: http://sensory.tennessee.edu/index.php/people/
Faculty Profile (website malfunctioning): http://foodsciencedev.tennessee.edu/faculty-profile/?smid=1400
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-luckett-5b4899126/
Twitter: @crluckett
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Clare Thorp is currently the Senior Vice President, for Creme Global where she works with companies and government agencies to support their decision-making processes through the harnessing of big data and deployment of advanced computational tools.
Since 2010, Clare has held executive leadership positions in trade associations and non-profits including CropLife America, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the International Life Sciences Institute of North America.
Cronan McNamara is the founder and CEO of Crème Global, where he pursues his passion in applying data and predictive models to solve problems in order to help people to make better decisions.
Prior to founding Creme Global in 2005, Cronan worked in financial risk analysis and derivative option price modeling with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Bank. Cronan then moved to Trinity College Dublin where he adapted the same mathematical methods to the food safety sector while developing the science and technology that underpins Creme Global.
Homepage: https://www.cremeglobal.com/
Cronan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cronanmcnamara/
Clare's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-thorp-ph-d-bbb52930/
Creme Global's Twitter: @cremeglobal
Cronan's Twitter: @cronanmcnamara
Clare's Twitter: @ClareAgSciNerd
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Jared Simmons is Founder and Principal of OUTLAST Consulting LLC, an Atlanta-based consultancy that helps companies bring an innovation mindset to their toughest business problems. Prior, Jared was a Strategic Initiatives Director at the Coca-Cola Company, responsible for creating and cultivating a pipeline of product innovation initiatives for various business units. Before joining Coca-Cola, Mr. Simmons was part of the Product Development and Innovation practice at McKinsey and Company, where he helped clients identify ways to improve innovation capability and outcomes. A chemical engineer by training, Jared’s career began in Research & Development at Procter & Gamble where held roles in market research, supplier management, and product development.
Homepage: https://outlastllc.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredsimmons/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/outlastllc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlastconsultingllc/
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Dag is an Inspiring trilingual leader at the interface of Marketing and R&D, loving Innovation, trends and insights, networking, design thinking, and social media. Dag has more than 20 years of experience in B2B and B2C context. Dag is a lecturer at different Universities and an international Conference speaker on Innovation, Trends and consumer behaviour in the digital age.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagpiper/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bugdag
Website: https://futurefour.net/
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Dal Perio is currently a Senior Manager of Product Insights at Starbucks Coffee Company. His 30-year career in the food industry includes positions in Sensory Science, Consumer Research and Marketing Research.
In addition to Starbucks, Dal has worked for the Fortune 500 companies Johnson & Johnson, Dean Foods, Campbell’s Soup and Wrigley, in sensory, marketing research and culinary roles. He worked at Tragon Corporation, Diageo, Pepperidge Farm, WhiteWave Foods and Unilever. He led a variety of programs including Product Innovation, Culinary, Exploratory Consumer Research, Quality Assurance, Analytical and Manufacturing Sensory, and Consumer Product Testing.
At Starbucks, Dal focuses on Product Insights of Beverage and Food, and Global Coffee Quality. His deep knowledge of product and consumer testing, and marketing research is applied to ensure each customer has the best approach and insights to solve their problem. Dal has been involved in IFT’s Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division, and in the Society of Sensory Professionals.
Notably, Dal was mentored by Rose Marie Pangborn while at U.C. Davis.
Contact: To be put in touch with Dal, please contact Aigora.
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Dr. Reed is the Associate Director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which is a non-profit research institute with scientists that use a multidisciplinary approach to study taste and smell. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from Yale University. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Scientists in her laboratory study how genotype account for personal differences in taste perception. Currently, she is on the leadership committee for the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research which is studying the effects of COVID-19 on taste and smell.
Homepage: http://www.monell.org/faculty/people/danielle_reed
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-reed-457a538/
Twitter: @DanielleRReed
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Darla Hall, Founding Partner of Research Vibe, guides cross-functional teams to deliver strategic solutions that transform consumer insights into innovative products and brands. Darla has lived and played in the world of product and market research for three decades, providing services to CPG, non-profits, entertainment and healthcare industries. As a Sensory Scientist and Certified Food Scientist, she brings a unique research perspective to CPG client teams. With a deep understanding of food systems and processes, she balances technical challenges with delivering a desired product and sensory experience. She is passionate about taking cross-functional teams on a journey inside the hearts and minds of consumers, discovering the emotional connection to products and illuminating solutions that improve consumer quality of life.
Website: www.researchvibe.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darlahall1/
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Dr. Jacob Lahne is an assistant professor of food science at Virginia Tech Jake brings an interdisciplinary background to sensory science. Besides his extensive work experience in the culinary field: he has worked as a farmhand, as a line cook in fine dining, and as a cheesemonger at Cowgirl Creamery. He is broadly interested in adapting new tools into sensory-science and has had success adopting diverse approaches to understanding sensory perceptions, from qualitative research to complex-systems and data-science. Jake collaborates widely with researchers from outside sensory science, with current collaborations in computer science, agricultural economics, public-health nutrition, and science & technology studies.
University Page: https://www.fst.vt.edu/aboutus/faculty/jlahne.html
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Kyle McNamara is the President & CEO at Graphable. He has 25+ years in the software industry as a full-stack web-application developer and architect, as well as in enterprise analytics, software sales and technical pre-sales. Working in venture capital-funded startups to Fortune 50 technology companies, he has created and led teams of all sizes. Recently he managed the IBM Financial Services Cloud/Analytics Architect team, followed by launching Graphable.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylemcna-analytics/
Company Page: https://www.graphable.ai/
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Dr. Cordelia Running, a chemist and a psychophysicist, uses flavors and sensations to understand human behavior and improve human nutrition. As an assistant professor of Nutrition Science at Purdue University, Dr. Running studies Saliva, Perception, Ingestion, and Tongues (The SPIT Lab) to help people to stick to healthy yet palatable diets. Her recent work emphasizes how saliva might adapt to bitter, healthy foods over time, trapping some of the bitter molecules and reducing the bitterness. Her research is funded by NIH, and she has multiple publications on the topics of food flavor, acceptability, structure, and the biochemistry of oral sensations.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crunning/
Faculty Page: https://www.purdue.edu/hhs/nutr/directory/faculty/running_cordelia.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spitlab
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Dr. Betina Piqueras-Fiszman is an Associate Professor at Wageningen University. Her research focuses on the exploration of novel ways to understand food perception, preferences, and motivations. Betina is particularly interested in the connection between how the mind works at an implicit level and what we observe explicitly. She uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the link between consumers’ associations, perception, and motivation, and teaches on these topics. She has published around 50 scientific peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and actively contributes to various international academic symposia, courses, and other public events. She is co-author of the book “The Perfect Meal” (which won the 2015 Prose Award) and co-edited the book “Multisensory Flavor Perception”. She also collaborates frequently with industry in a wide range of private and European projects. Betina won the 2017 Food Quality and Preference Young Researcher award and currently sits on the editorial boards of Food Quality and Preference and Appetite.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betina-piqueras-fiszman-93166621/
University Page: https://www.wur.nl/en/Persons/Betinadr.-B-Betina-Piqueras-Fiszman.htm
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Frank Rossi is an R&D Director at PepsiCo in Plano TX, where he leads the statistics team supporting PepsiCo’s global snacks business. He is an Accredited Professional Statistician with more than 30 years of industry experience including positions at Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup Company and General Foods. Frank is coauthor of the book Statistics for Food Scientists: Making Sense of the Numbers which was published by Academic Press in 2015.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankrossistatistics/
PepsiCo: https://www.pepsico.com/
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Martha Bajec is the principal and founder of Bajec Senseworks consulting, located in Burlington ON. Martha is a highly-regarded scientist, and an expert at designing, directing, and delivering evidence-based, actionable insights. Martha is known for her clear and concise communication as an individual contributor and as a leader of internal and external multidisciplinary teams.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marthabajec
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Richard Popper is CEO of P&K Research, a consumer research agency dedicated to helping client companies improve and grow their product portfolio.
Richard began his career as a member of the Behavioral Sciences Group at the U.S. Army Natick RD&E Center, and, prior to joining P&K Research, Richard held management positions at Ocean Spray Cranberries in R&D and Marketing.
Richard regularly contributes to professional societies on topics of consumer and sensory science, has published over 25 journal articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of technical journals.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardpopper
P&K Research: https://www.pk-research.com/
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John Smythe works at Amazon as part of their Amazon Insights program, which focuses on delivering insights to Amazon vendors that improve their customer experiences. Prior to that, John worked at Tate & Lyle, where he helped co-author three patents involving taste perception, and prior to that he was with Herbalife where he helped build and globalize a full service sensory program functioning in 18 countries. John specializes in automating and visualizing complex analyses for non-practitioners and has a passion for food, data, travel, and wine.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-smythe-595a1b4/
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Dr. Danielle van Hout is a sensory consultant and founder of DEE-PRIME, an international research and consultancy agency for sensory and consumer research, located in The Netherlands.
Danielle is an applied sensory and consumer scientist who enjoys translating academic insights into better practices that benefit FMCG businesses. She collaborates with leading scientists to investigate and develop ecologically valid consumer research methods and effective sensory test methods, optimally suitable for knowledge building in the digital age.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellehelenaalicevanhout/
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Becky Bleibaum, M.A., president and co-founder of Dragonfly SCI, sensory science consultancy with a mission to help entrepreneurially spirited teams, and their products, become more successful in the marketplace.
Prior to founding Dragonfly SCI, Bleibaum was the Chief Sensory Officer at Tragon Corporation, working alongside Herbert Stone and Joel Sidel for nearly 30 years, beginning as their first intern while a student at UC Davis under the guidance of Rose Marie Pangborn and Howard Schutz.
She also is co-developer and instructor of UC Davis Extension’s web-based “Applied Sensory & Consumer Science Certificate Program”, on their Leadership Board for Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, teaches sensory science in the Master, Professional, and Intensive Brewing Program, and in 2016, was awarded the Outstanding Service Award for her contributions and dedication to the University's continuing education programs.
Bleibaum is co-author of Sensory Evaluation Practices, Fourth Edition (2012), A Practical Guide to Comparative Advertising: Dare-to-Compare (est. 2018), along with a variety of chapters, papers, and presentations on sensory and consumer science. She is the past Chair for ASTM E-18 on Sensory Evaluation and has been active in ASTM since 1985. She is a founding member of the Society of Sensory Professionals and was conference chair for the second meeting in Napa Valley, in 2010. Bleibaum has received multiple ASTM awards for contributions, has spoken at numerous workshops and events, and has given hundreds of presentations on sensory science over the years on a wide variety of FMCG products.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-n-bleibaum-aab7221/
Dragonfly SCI: https://dragonflysci.net/
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Dr. Michael Nestrud is the founder and president of MNC consulting. Michael's unique point of view stems from his student days at The Culinary Institute of America and Cornell University, where he merged the disciplines of Culinary Arts, Food Science, Computer Science and Psychology to solve problems related to food choice, consumer emotional response, and menu design. Prior to founding MNC, Michael spent the past 10+ years working at government, market research and CPG organizations to design solutions to real business issues. Among other activities, Michael has served as Scientific Chair for the Society of Sensory Professionals and the conference chair for the 2017 Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mnestrud/
MNC: https://www.mnestc.com/
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Mona Wolf is a consultant, speaker, and trainer in the application of state-of-the-art sensory techniques. Mona is the President and founder of The Wolf Group, Inc. a private sensory-consulting firm. Mona has over 45 years of knowledge, experience, and practice in the field of sensory evaluations and has served as chair for the main committee of ASTM E-18 on Sensory Evaluation.
Mona Wolf: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mona-wolf-23a6696/
Wolf Group: http://wolfgrp.com/
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Ludovic is an entrepreneur and keynote speaker on the topics of sensory, marketing, and innovation in research. As chairman and founder of Haystack he supports the world’s leading FMCG, Personal Care, and Healthcare companies with innovations in the area of sensory experience. His passion lays in optimizing consumer experience by using the power of multi-sensory insights to build the connection between emotions and brands.
Ludovic has been active in sensory research for over 20 years. He is a member of the Board at the European Sensory Network, President of Cube (Consumer Understanding Belgium) and Fellow at the KU Leuven University.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludovicdepoortere/
Haystack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/haystack/
Haystack website: https://www.haystack-consulting.com/
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Anne Goldman is an IFT Fellow, a Certified Food Scientist, and has been honored with IFT’s 2016 Sensory and Consumer Sciences Achievement Award. Among other honors, Anne is a recipient of the Honorary David R. Peryam Award for applied sensory science and co-chair of the 14th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium in Vancouver, Canada, in August of this year.
A food science graduate of the Universities of London and Leeds Anne began her professional career in the UK food industry, followed by research positions with DSIR, Fonterra and Massey University in New Zealand and an Assistant Professorship at the University of Guelph, Canada.
Anne is most proud of the fact that she has been a principle of ACCE International since it was founded in 1986.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-goldman-3a86837/
ACCE: https://www.acceintl.com/
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Lindsay Barr has a decade of experience working as a Sensory Specialist for New Belgium Brewing and is a Co-Founder of DraughtLab Sensory Software. She holds a Masters degree in Food Science from UC Davis and served as the chair of the ASBC Sensory Committee for five years where she developed and published seven new beer Sensory methods. She believes flavor is the most important factor in determining food and beverage quality and continues to develop tools focused on helping businesses use their senses to inform everyday production decisions.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-barr-9151452b/
DraughtLab: https://www.draughtlab.com/
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Sue Jervis leads a team of fun and passionate researchers who are focused on providing insights for the development of new Members Mark items across all categories. Her team encompasses Insights, Sensory, and Decision Sciences. Through this effort, she’s able to support the entire business to determine their brand, concept, product, and artwork perception from a Member perspective.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-jervis-31377532/
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Thierry is a serial entrepreneur who created XLSTAT in 1993 and who founded Addinsoft, which has been selling XLSTAT since 2000. Along the way, Thierry completed his masters and PhD in statistics and, since 2002, he has worked full time on XLSTAT. Since then Addinsoft has grown to 25 employees operating from both France and Mexico, with 2019 its best year ever and 2020 looking even better.
Thierry’s Contact Information:
Website: https://www.xlstat.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thierry-fahmy-2b1aa0/
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Amanda is an R&D director for the Sensory & Consumer Product Insights team at PepsiCo, leading research for global snacks. While collaborating daily with fellow sensory professionals, product developers, and business leaders representing diverse product portfolios from around the world, she ensures that consumer empathy is top of mind for key business decisions.
Note: Amanda Grzeda is an employee of PepsiCo, Inc. The views expressed in this presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of PepsiCo, Inc.
Amanda’s Contact Information:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-grzeda-b1b56b4/
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Lauren Rogers is a freelance sensory scientist who fell in love with sensory in the early 1990s when she worked for Dalgety, a food ingredients company. Later, she worked for GSK, mainly on beverages such as Ribena and Horlicks. Now Lauren works with several different clients in a wide variety of product categories and also lectures on sensory science at the University of Nottingham. Lauren is particularly interested in the sensory, consumer, and emotional attributes of brands; sensory shelf-life; panel performance; and sensory claim substantiation.
Lauren's Contact Information:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenlrogers/
Email: laurenlrogers@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenLRogers
Web: https://www.laurenlrogers.com/
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Rob Baker is a Section Head in the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence group at P&G. His group consists of Data Scientists and Data Engineers supporting R&D for all of P&G’s businesses. Rob holds a Master's degree in Statistics from Purdue and has 30 years of experience with consumer research methods. Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-baker-a8bb275/
P&G jobs: https://www.pgcareers.com/
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
To learn more about Aigora, please visit www.aigora.com
Adam Yee is a passionate food scientist who develops food products ranging from protein bars to plant-based meats and who, in his spare time, hosts the well-known podcast “My Food Job Rocks” that just recorded its 200th episode.
Web: https://myfoodjobrocks.com/
Email: podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsmeadamyee/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myfoodjobrocks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myfoodjobrocks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/myfoodjobrocks
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Professor Hort is an internationally renowned sensory scientist and is Fonterra-Riddet Chair in Consumer and Sensory Science at Massey University (NZ). She is also a Principal Investigator in the Riddet Centre of Research Excellence. Her research focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the factors affecting consumer perception of food and consequent choice behaviours, and developing effective methods to measure them. She is director of FEAST, the Food Experience and Sensory Testing Lab, and has recently secured NZ$2.25M to develop a future facing Consumer and Sensory Science Centre at Massey’s Manawatu Campus.
Joanne Hort on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-hort-14660321/?originalSubdomain=nz
Massey University: https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-of-sciences/clinics-and-services/feast/feast_home.cfm
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Tom Carr has used statistics to solve problems in the consumer products industries his entire career. He is very product focused. He has worked closely with his clients’ organizations to introduce new products and to improve existing ones. His work has exposed him to a wide variety of disciplines including engineering, chemistry, rheology, sensory, psychology, consumer science, and more. Tom is motivated by the challenge of figuring out how to use the information from these diverse sources help his clients achieve their goals.
Tom is known for his ability to explain complex topics in easy to understand ways. He has done this in the books he has co-authored, in the courses he teaches, in the ASTM and ISO standards he works on, and in his collaborations with the students he advises during their graduate programs.
Tom has a BA in Mathematics from the University of Dayton and a MS in Statistics from Colorado State University.
Tom Carr on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-carr-6529634/
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Dr. Chris Simons is a professor of Food Science and Technology at the Ohio State University. He received his PhD in Sensory Science at the University of California, Davis before conducting his post-doc in Sensory Neurobiology in France. From 2004 through 2012, Chris led the Sensory Research function at Givaudan Flavors Corp. and joined the faculty in the Department of Food Science and Technology at The Ohio State University in 2013. In 2017, Chris was awarded the Barry Jacobs Memorial Award for Research in the Psychophysics of Human Taste and Smell by the Association for Chemoreception Sciences. Chris’ research interests use a multidisciplinary approach to understand perception of foods and how they are processed to influence reward and ultimately behavior.
Dr. Simons on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersimons/
Dr. Simons' faculty page: https://fst.osu.edu/our-people/dr-christopher-simons
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Dr. Michelle Niedziela is a behavioral neuroscientist experienced in both academia and industry. Michelle began her career as a post-doctoral fellow at Monell Chemical Senses Center working on research of functional foods. She continued her career at Johnson & Johnson where she specialized in innovation technologies for consumer products. At Mars Chocolate, Michelle worked on global sensory projects and in her current role as VP of Research and Innovation at HCD Research, Michelle focuses on integrating applied consumer neuroscience tools with traditional sensory methods to measure consumer response with the goal of providing a comprehensive account of consumer decision making.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-niedziela-phd-b581a712/
HCD Research: http://www.hcdi.net/
HCD Research on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hcd-research/
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Gemma Hodgson has an MSc in Medical Statistics and worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a statistician for over 15 years. Gemma now runs Qi Statistics Ltd, and gives statistical training and consultancy advice to a wide variety of customers in sensory and consumer science, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing. Gemma is known for her approachable attitude and skills at converting complex concepts into ideas that can be applied in practice.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmahodgsonstats/
Qi Statistics Ltd: https://www.qistatistics.co.uk/
Qi Statistics on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/qi-statistics/
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As the Chairman, founder and architect of Compusense, Chris provides a lifetime worth of skill and experience in the sensory and consumer science field. Founding Compusense in 1986, Chris has been an active participant and promoter to the growth of the sensory and consumer science community. From the beginning, he has been committed to “good science” and has always been reluctant to support dubious sensory methods. In the early days of temporal research, Chris and his colleagues pioneered dual-attribute time intensity and also developed the Feedback Calibration Method for training proficient descriptive analysis panelists—a method that continues to save clients valuable time and budget.
As the company continued to rapidly grow, Chris began to teach Sensory Evaluation at the University of Guelph in the Department of Food Science. During this time, his students would complete their labs at Compusense and gain real-world experience working in a sensory lab. Chris continues to hold Graduate Faculty appointments in both Food Science and Maths and Statistics.
While teaching, and to this day, Chris remains active and committed to the organizations in the sensory and consumer science field. In 2011 he received the Inaugural Sensory and Consumer Sciences Achievement award from IFT in recognition of his commitment. He is also active in ASTM E-18 and was a founder of the Society of Sensory Professionals. In 2008, Chris had the honour of chairing the 9th Sensometrics Meeting at Brock University and was also one of chairs for the 9th Pangborn Meeting held in Toronto in 2011.
In 2017, ASTM International Committee E18 presented Chris with the David R. Peryam Award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the field of sensory science.
Chris enjoys the ability to conduct independent research with talented and generous collaborators from around the globe, continuing to contribute to the ever-expanding community of sensory and consumer science.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-findlay-4b41737/
Compusense Inc.:https://compusense.com/en/
Compusense Inc. on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/compusense-inc./
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