17 Jan 2018
Harsh Prakash Sharma was awarded a Seligman APV Travel Bursary in 2017 to attend the 19th International Conference on Food Processing and Technology which took place 23 - 25 October in Paris, France. Here, he tells us about his personal and professional experiences.
‘I am privileged to be the first Indian to get APV travel bursary award by one of the most esteemed and acclaimed professional societies in the world to participate in the 19th International conference on Food Processing and Technology in Paris, France from 23-25 October 2017. The first International conference out of my home country provided me an exceptional opportunity for horizontal exchange of experiences and an occasion to familiarise myself with good practices as a channel for my professional as well as personal development. I feel this experience will give a new direction to my thought process leading to adoption of challenging research problems, this would be of great help for me in delivering guidance to my master’s and to be allotted Ph.D. students in future.
'This conference Series successfully hosted the 19th International Conference on Food Processing & Technology during October 23-25, 2017 at Paris, France. The conference focused on current innovation on food sciences with the theme "Targeted Innovation to Nourish the Challenging World”. The conference covered more than fifteen topics regarding food processing and food science, food and nutrition, food security, food waste management and Food Psychology. On the above topics many interesting presentations were given by over 40 keynote speakers and other leading speakers from industry and academia.
'The conference duration was three days marked with workshops, symposia, multiple sessions, keynote presentations, panel discussions, young research forum and poster sessions. The conference was initiated with a warm welcome note by Honourable guests and the Keynote forum. The proceedings went through interactive sessions and panel discussions headed by honourable Dr. Ozlem Tokusoglu, Celal Bayar University, Turkey, Giancarlo Cravotto, University of Turin, Italy, Mirjana Menkovska, Ss.Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Macedonia, Osama O Ibrahim, Bio Innovation, USA, and Farid Chemat, University of Avignon, France for the conference.
‘My oral presentation was scheduled on the second day afternoon in special session i.e. food processing, preservation and packaging, and I delivered a talk on the topic entitled “Technology for extraction of wood apple (Feronia Limonia) juice”. My presentation was specially focused on the meditational as well as nutritional values of the underexploited wood apple fruit and to study the role of steaming, enzymes and combined treatments as pretreatments as well as different juice extraction machines on juice yield and total soluble solids of wood apple (“Feronia Limonia”) juice. I feel that it was a good opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas with other scientists working in similar areas.
'Finally, I take this opportunity to thank the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) for funding my travel to attend the International conference in Paris, France by awarding me the APV Seligman travel bursary. Thank you SCI and Seligman APV to be a part of my first International visit. I am very much thankful to my research supervisor Dr. D.C. Joshi (Dean, AAU, Anand) for his consistent support and research guidance. I am really thankful to Dr. P.K. Nema (NIFTEM) for the inspiration and motivation I got from him throughout my academic carrier. I am also grateful to my family for their constant encouragement and everlasting blessings. Last but not the least my heartfelt gratitude to the Almighty for his enlightenment and benevolence.’
Harsh Prakash Sharma
PhD Student
Anand Agricultural University