Professor Anwesha Sarkar
Anwesha Sarkar (
A.Sarkar@leeds.ac.uk) is Professor of Colloids and Surfaces at the University of Leeds, UK. Her international research trajectory spans from academic institutions to industries in India, New Zealand, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
Prof. Sarkar received her BTech (Dairy Engineering) and MS (Food Technology) from India. Then she did PhD in Food Technology from Massey University, New Zealand (2010) in colloidal aspects of lipid digestion and worked for 4 years in Nestle Research (Lausanne) and Nestle Global Headquarters (Vevey) in Switzerland before joining University of Leeds. Prof. Sarkar is the PI of the prestigious ERC (European Research Council) Starting Grant funded Project LUBSAT (2017-22) to discover oral lubrication mechanisms and its effects on oro-sensory satiety, PI of ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) Project AQUALUB (2020-23) to develop salivary substitutes with optimal oral lubrication properties and ERC PoC (UKRI Horizon Guarantee Fund) Project MICROLUB to develop microgel-based fat replacers. She is also the Theme Lead in the EPSRC-CDT (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-Centre for Doctoral Training) in 'Molecules to Product' (2019-27) and a key academic supervisor in EPSRC-CDT in 'Soft Matter for Formulation and Industrial Innovation' (2019-28). Prof. Sarkar was the Conference Chair of the 17th Food Colloids Conference (2018), the reputed biennial conference in the field of physical chemistry of complex foods at Leeds, UK and has served as Guest Editors for Advances in Colloid and Interface Science as well as Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects. She is the editorial board member of journals, Food Hydrocolloids, Food Hydrcolloids for Health, Biotribology, Tribology Letters, Food Structure, and Journal of Texture Studies. Prof. Sarkar has been recognized by the Women of Achievement Roll of Honour 2018 at University of Leeds for her recent contributions to the field of colloid science and oral processing. She is the winner of the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Food Group Junior Medal 2019 as a result of her research in designing novel food structures with targeted oral lubrication performance. Previously she was awarded Elsevier Young Scientist Award (2009) and Nestle Discovery award (2011) for her scientific researches. To date, Prof. Sarkar has published +100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is the co-inventor of 7 patents and and she is regularly invited for giving keynote lectures at national and international conferences in food, oral therapies and allied soft matter areas.