Prof. Shaoping Nie received his Ph.D. in 2006 from Nanchang University. He is the dean of the School of Food Science and Technology and the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University. He has been long engaged in the structural analysis and physiological function research of food polysaccharides. He has obtained funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for the Outstanding Youth and Key International (Regional) Cooperative Research Projects and has won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the provincial and ministerial awards of Natural Science or Science and Technology Progress over ten times. The associated achievements have been published in journals like FEMS Microbiology Reviews, Trends in Food Science & Technology, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Food Hydrocolloids, and Food Chemistry. Over 30 invention patents have been authorized. Dr. Steve Cui is a Research Scientist at the Guelph Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Dr. Cui’s research interests are focused on the structure and functional properties of dietary fibre and hydrocolloids from agricultural products and their applications in foods. His expertise includes extraction, fractionation, analysis of natural polysaccharides, and elucidation of polysaccharide structures using methylation analysis, 2D NMR and mass spectroscopic techniques. He has been studying the bioactivity and structure-function relationship of polysaccharides by examining their conformation, rheological properties and functionality using light scattering and computer modelling approaches, and developing methodologies and process technologies to incorporate soluble dietary fibre into food products to exert health benefits. Dr. Cui founded a journal entitled “Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre and acts as is the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. He is also Guest Editor and Editorial Board Member of Food Hydrocolloids. He was a Director of the Board of CIFST and chaired the 6th International Hydrocolloids Conference (Guelph, Canada in 2002), co-chaired the 2012 CIFST Conference at Niagara Falls, and acts as Chair of the13th International Hydrocolloids Conference (to be hold on May 16-20, 2016 in Guelph, Canada). He authored and edited two books: “Polysaccharide Gums from Agricultural Products: Processing, Structures and Functionality (2000) and “Food Carbohydrate: Chemistry, Physical Properties and Applications (CRC Press, 2005). Dr. Cui holds six patents and has published over 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers and dozens of book chapters in the area of food carbohydrates. Dr. Cui graduated from the Peking University, China with a B.Sc. degree in 1983, from Jiangnan University (Wuxi, China) with a M.Sc. degree in 1986, and from the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Manitoba) with a Ph.D. degree in 1993 major in food carbohydrates. Dr. Mingyong Xie is a Professor in the Department of Food Science and Engineering at Nanchang University, China. He is the Vice President of Nanchang University and Director of State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University. He was graduated from the University of Bonn (Bonn, Germany) in 1997 with a Ph.D. degree major in Nutrition. His research interests are focused on food safety, food chemistry and nutrition, and developing bioactive ingredients for the functional foods and nutraceutical industry. Dr. Xie is the Associate Editor of LWT-Food Science and Technology, and the Member of Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, China, Member of Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Education, China. Dr. Xie authored and edited three books, holds eight patents, and has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers in many journals, such as J Agric Food Chem, Food Chem, Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, Anal Chim Acta, Anal Bioanal Chem, J Pharm Biomed Anal, J Chromtogr A, Talanta, Carbohydrate Polymers, J Food Eng, Food Hydrocolloids, Eur Food Res and Technol, Microchem J and Life Sciences, etc.
