About us

Iris Joye obtained her Ph. D. degree at the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 2010. Her doctoral research encompassed an in-depth study of enzyme systems in wheat that affect the redox state of bread dough and the quality of the final bread loaf. After her Ph.D., she focused on chemical redox agents which are commonly used to improve dough and bread quality, on fortification of breakfast cereals and encapsulation technology with special emphasis on biopolymer-based systems. Iris Joye is currently working as associate professor Cereal Science and Technology at the University of Guelph. She combines her research expertise in cereal science with her knowledge on colloidal chemistry. The research line she and the students in her team are working on combines the different aspects of cereal science and colloidal chemistry by focusing on cereal proteins as intriguing and highly functional food components. Iris Joye is the (co-)author of 43 peer reviewed publications, 3 book chapters and contributed to 50 presentations on scientific meetings.

Wei Cao obtained her Ph.D. degree in Bioresources Science in Japan in 2004. Her doctoral research mainly focused on the dynamic modelling of drying to improve processing quality of wheat and rice. After her Ph.D., she worked more than 10 years in the China Agricultural University. Wei Cao has worked in the Cereal Lab of the University of Guelph since September 2014 as a post-doctoral fellow. Her expertise covers wheat functionality, cereal chemistry and processing. For the last five years, she has benchmarked diversity in Ontario grown hard and soft wheat (more than 50 lines/varieties) with different end-use and explored the lipid compositions and gluten functionality changes in wheat flours during aging. Wei Cao is the (co-) author of about 40 peer reviewed publications, 3 book chapters and has more than 30 contributions to scientific meetings on her name.

Alyssa Francavilla obtained her undergraduate degree in Food Science at the University of Guelph in 2019. She successfully defended her MSc in 2021 and started her Food Science Ph.D. program in January 2022. Her research focuses on encapsulation of hydrophilic bioactive molecules for applications in cereal products. The end goal is to develop vehicles for controlled release during cereal processing, hence, ensuring chemical food safety. Alyssa is also closely involved with the outreach activities within the Department tailored towards high school students.

Navneet Navneet obtained her M.Sc. degree in Food Technology from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. She started as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Food Science, University of Guelph in 2019. Her project focuses on the development of functional bean flours using extrusion technology and other physical bean flour treatments. The altered starch and protein properties are believed to affect the functionality of bean flour in food processing.

Pervin Ari Akin earned her master’s degree in Grain Science and Industry from Kansas State University in 2017, where her thesis focused on chemically leavened gluten-free sorghum bread. She also served as a Visiting Researcher at the US Department of Agriculture conducting research on “Factors Influencing Zein–Whole Sorghum Flour Dough Formation and Bread Quality.” Following this, she worked for over 5 years as a Food Engineer at the Plant-Based Food Research Center, Field Crops Central Research Institute in Turkey. Her research activities have resulted in over 22 publications and presentations in the fields of food and cereal science. In May 2023, she commenced her doctoral studies at the University of Guelph in the Department of Food Science. Her research is focused on the macroscopic and microscopic assessment of hydrocolloids and plant protein conjugates as gluten analogs in gluten-free bread.