Carlos Álvarez García (PhD): obtained his doctorate in the University of Oviedo (Spain) in 2012, the topic of the research work was focused on characterization of isolated proteins from porcine blood, based on their functional and antioxidant properties.  After that he joined the NutraMara project as Post-doctoral student; at this stage new techniques were developed aiming to recover proteins, peptides, amino acids, minerals and fatty acids from several fisheries wastes (frames, guts, heads, shells or mollusc flesh) and seaweed sources. Currently he is Research Officer in Teagasc Food Research Centre involved in ReValue Protein project, focused in recovery and re-valorisation of molecules of high-added value from co-products and processing streams of meat industry as blood, lungs, heart and other offal. As researcher, his main interest is to develop and apply emerging technologies to increase the value of food wastes and co-products. He has filed 4 patents, published more than 20 research papers, 6 book chapters and attended many national and international conferences.

Dr. Keith Belk is a Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and the Center for Meat Safety & Quality. His research focuses on red meat quality and safety, live animal development, international marketing of red meats, and quality management systems. Belk has won several awards over the course of his career, including the North American Meat Association’s Harry L. Rudnick Educator’s Award and the American Meat Science Association’s Signal Service Award, both in 2013.

Belk earned his B.S. and M.S. from CSU in 1983 and 1986, respectively. He received his Ph.D in Meat Science from Texas A&M University in 1992. Belk is affiliated with several professional organizations, including the American Society of Animal Science, the Western Stock Show Association, and the Institute of Food Technologists.

Dr. Flores received her PhD (1994) from the Valencia University (Spain) and became a Postdoctoral fellow at Southern Regional Research Center for two years (USDA, ARS, USA). Since 1997 she is a Research Scientist at IATA-CSIC (Valencia, Spain). She was also associate professor at Valencia University (2003-2013) and actually teaches at the Master on Food Quality and Safety. She has been the Chairwoman of the Nutrition and Health working group of Clitravi (Liason Center for the Meat Processing Industry in the E.U.) (2013-2016). Her work has resulted in the publication of more than 94 articles in international journals and 30 book chapters.

Her research activities have been focused on the study of the mechanisms (chemical, enzymatic and microbiological) of generation and perception of colour and flavour in meat products. She has worked in the development of high quality sensory and nutritive meat products and in the development of rapid methodologies for monitoring and improving manufacturing processes. Actually, her main interest is the study of the generation of aroma compounds and their stability in meat and meat products including the development of new ingredients for flavor enhancement. She is specialist in the characterization of aroma compounds by the use of different aroma techniques including olfactometry analysis.

Dr. Yuan H. “Brad” Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University. Brad received his M.S. from Kansas State University in 2004, and PhD from Texas A&M University in 2008, specialized in myoglobin chemistry related to meat color. Brad continued on his muscle biochemistry career working as a postdoc research associate at Iowa State University focusing on the calpain system and meat quality. Prior to Purdue, he worked at AgResearch, New Zealand for 3.5 years as a Senior Scientist.

Dr. Kim currently leads the Meat Science and Muscle Biology research program at Purdue University, focusing on identifying key biochemical mechanisms governing meat quality and developing post-harvest strategies to improve meat quality attributes. Dr. Kim has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 4 book chapters, 2 patents, 15 proceedings and 40 abstracts. Dr. Kim has been successful acquiring research grants over $1.5 million as a PI, including his recent USDA-AFRI grant award. Brad was also a recipient of the 2011 New Zealand AGMARDT Grant Award. Brad has served on the Editorial Board of Meat and Muscle Biology Journal (AMSA), IFT-Muscle Food Division member-at-large, and Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources overseas member-at-large. Dr. Kim has been recently appointed to an Honorary Scientist and Advisor of the National Institute of Animal Science, Korea. Dr. Kim has also been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Young Research Award from the Midwest American Society of Animal Science.

Frank Monahan holds a B.Sc (Biochemistry) from University College Dublin (UCD) and a PhD (Food Science and Technology) from University College Cork. Prior to joining the academic staff at UCD he was a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California, Davis and a visiting scholar at Michigan State University. He is Professor of Meat Science at UCD and Head of Food Science and Nutrition in the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science. His research interests are in meat authentication, muscle fatty acids and antioxidants and in dietary factors affecting the sensory quality of muscle foods. Recent research projects include “Age and Gender Effects on the Sensory Quality of Lamb”, “Processed Meats with Health Benefits”, “Authentication of Grass-fed Beef” and “Dietary Background and Geographical Origin of Meat” funded under the Irish Department of Agriculture’s Food Institutional Research Measure, Teagasc Walsh Fellowship and Science Foundation Ireland programmes and EU programmes. He has over 130 published peer reviewed publications.

Marlon Reis has background in Chemistry from Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil, Masters and PhD in Chemometrics from University of Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil. Marlon was postdoctoral scientist at University of Sao Paulo in Brazil where he developed applications for on-line process monitoring based on spectroscopic measurements. Marlon has 30 published peer reviewed publications, a book chapter and has served as associated editor of Brazilian Journal of Food Technology.  Since he joined AgResearch in 2007 as Senior Scientist, Marlon has researched extensively the application and development of spectroscopic techniques for assessment of meat, including techniques based on nuclear magnetic resonance, near Infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging. Marlon has special interest on the use of chemometrics and spectroscopy  for assessment of chemical, textural and structural characteristics of meat.  Marlon current research focus on development of novel approaches for non-invasive assessment of meat integrity across New Zealand meat supply chain. Currently his projects include meat carcass inspection, on-line assessment of meat quality, non-invasive assessment of shelf-life, provenance and authenticity.  

Peter Purslow is director of the meat science research group in the food technology department of the National University of Central Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.  He began his career in meat science at the UK Meat Research Institute and subsequently has held professorships in Denmark, Scotland, and Canada.   He was president of the Canadian Meat Science association in 2012 and is currently an associate editor of the journal Meat Science. He attended his first IC0MST in 1984 and has made 5 previous presentations over the last 24 years on basic mechanisms underlying various aspects of meat quality.  In his presentation at ICoMST 2018 he returns to a core area of his expertise, concerning the properties of intramuscular connective tissue and its response to heat

Mari Ann Tørngren graduated as MSc in food science in 2002 from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark. The focus in her thesis was colour stability of retailed packed beef, and the results initiated the scientific discussion and understanding of the drawbacks for flavour and texture when stabilizing fresh meat colour with high oxygen MAP. After 15 years of research in the field of applied meat science, packaging is still a main topic for her research. To meet the future demands for quality and safety, at both near and long distance markets, packaging must be incorporated into technological innovative solutions. During the past decade, this has been the focus for Mari Ann Tørngren in numerous projects carried out in collaboration with universities and the meat industry to ensure solutions in practice on the background of research.

Wangang Zhang is a professor in the College of Food Science and Technology of Nanjing Agricultural University in China. He received his bachelor and master degree from China Agricultural University majoring in Animal Nutrition. He got his PhD from the Department of Animal Science of Iowa State University with the major of Meat Science. In 2011, he joined the National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control of Nanjing Agricultural University as a full professor. Currently, he is the Department Head of Food Science and Engineering of Nanjing Agricultural University. He also serves as the Associate Editor of Meat Science and Chinese Journal of Animal Science. His research mainly focuses on meat biochemistry regulating the quality of meat and meat products. He has published 75 peer reviewed articles in international journals.