P. G. RAO - INDIA, Scientific Council Chair 

Dr Rao occupied various Scientist positions in CSIR Institutes, before attaining the position of Director at North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, India. Subsequently, he was CSIR-Distinguished Scientist. Dr Rao’s significant contributions were in the area of process development and providing engineering packages to Chemical, Leather, Food and Allied Industries during his professional career. Dr Rao has more than 165 publications in peer reviewed international and National journals, 70 papers presented in national and international seminars, proceedings, 21 patents, 3 copy rights, 2 books and 10 chapters in books to his credit. Dr Rao is Fellow of several Academies including IAFoST.

Dr Rao was key member of the organizational committee for the IUFoST World Congress 2018 in Mumbai, India and was also Scientific Chair for the congress, through which he had exposure to the international scientific community of the Food Science & Technology. Dr Rao has played a key role in organizing nearly 80 scientific sessions and 30 Plenary Talks, Keynote and Valedictory Lectures with the interaction of professionals in Food Science & Technology globally relevant to IUFoST.  Dr. Rao is a Fellow of IAFoST.

LILIA AHRNÉ - SWEDEN, Scientific Council Past Chair 

Prof. Lilia Ahrné has a PhD in food engineering from the School of Biotechnology at the Catholic University of Portugal with an internship at University of California Davis. In 1994, she moved to Sweden with an EU fellowship from the FP5 (Air Mobility) to perform a one year PostDoc project hosted by Tetra Pak Processing Systems in collaboration with Lund University. After working for Tetra Pak, she joined SIK- The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, now part of RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden, and for 10 years, she was the director of Process and Technology Development department and adjunct Professor in Food Technology at Chalmers University of Technology. She has been president of EFFoST (European Federation of Food Science and Technology) and led the Food Science Sweden, a collaborative platform financed by the major Swedish food research actors. She has been member of the National Committee Food Sciences of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) and member of the Expert Group on FOOD 2030 for the European Commission R&I Directorate F. Her research interests are to understand the effect of processing on physical, chemical and structural characteristics of foods, and use this knowledge to develop new processes. She is a Fellow of IAFoST.

Declan J. Troy retired in 2026 as Assistant Director of Research, Teagasc – The Irish Agriculture and Development Authority. He also was Director of Technology and Knowledge Transfer for the Teagasc Food Programme and is Head of the Teagasc Ashtown Food Research Centre.

During this career he has published over 150 scientific peer reviewed publications, books, book chapters and scientific articles, mainly in the area of meat quality. The main focus of his research is on the biochemistry of muscle proteins and their role in meat tenderness. Declan has always encouraged the up-take of science-based innovations by the food industry and has interacted widely with the sector to this end. His work has contributed to the introduction of new technologies at industrial level particularly in Ireland's competitive beef sector. In 2017 he was awarded the American Meat Science Association’s International Award. He has collaborated in his research programme with many different research groups from Europe and all around the world including Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Uruguay, China, Brazil and of course the USA.

Declan has fostered highly successful international collaborations and exchange of knowledge in food science by coordinating EU and nationally funded research projects worth more than €90 million that supported 135 PhD students globally in different laboratories at collaborating institutions. Most recently, he has been appointed as the Director of the National Consumer Food Centre in Teagasc funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Declan sits on many national and international committees formulating research priorities in food science and advising state agencies and companies. He is currently a member of the UNECE Working Group on Meat Quality. He was Chairman of the World Congress of Food Science and Technology 2016 (IUFoST 2016) in Dublin in his capacity as President of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of Ireland (2016 - present). He has also been appointed (2019) as head of the International Secretariat of the International Congress of Meat Science and Technology (ICoMST) of which he was chair both in 2006 (Dublin) and 2017 (Cork) and he is the Academic Leader of Meat Technology Ireland (MTI) a €20m meat industry led research and innovation programme.