SRINAGAR: Dr Hilal A Makroo, Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Technology of the Islamic University of Science & Technology (IUST) Kashmir has been awarded the Young Scientist and Technologist award by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
The award is granted under the theme “Socio-economic Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” for his research on “Ohmic heating based novel aseptic and continuous processing of viscous food materials for shelf-life enhancement”.
Dr Makroo’s research team is dedicated to working on valorizing food waste, byproducts, and underutilizing minor fruits and vegetables. These studies involve the integration of chemical and life sciences to understand the complexities of the food systems and provide solutions to challenges in their utilization as part of food security and safety.
Appreciating the research acumen of Dr Makroo, Prof A H Moon, Dean Research IUST said “Dr Hilal is one of the most promising young researchers in our fold.”
He said that his research work has already gained international attention and acceptance among top researchers.
“This a testimony to the fact that IUST is moving up the ladder very quickly in establishing itself as an upcoming research university with state-of-the-art infrastructure and visionary leadership,” he added.
The proposed project is aimed to develop novel processing equipment and a process to tackle limitations of traditional processing.
Under this project, Dr Makroo and his research team will be working on designing joules heating-based unconventional thermal processing equipment for aseptic and continuous processing of viscous food materials.
