Bob Gilbert

About him:

Professor Robert G (Bob) Gilbert works at both the University of Queensland (Australia) and YangZhou University, China. Undergraduate at Sydney University, PhD from the Australian National University, postdoc at MIT and then worked at the University of Sydney. In 2006, he moved to the University of Queensland to pursue his interests in the relations between human health and the structures of complex glucose polymers (starch and glycogen). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, is author of about 480 papers, 6 patents, and 2 books. In this field, he has developed new experiment and theoretical methodologies for characterizing the complex molecular architecture of these biopolymers; the target is biosynthesis-structure-property relations important for human health (especially control and mitigation of obesity and diabetes) and industrial uses. He was President of the IUPAC Macromolecular Division (1998-2001). Some awards include the Ronald Ottewill Award of the UK Polymer Colloids Forum 2007, the Australian Academy of Science Craig Prize (2010), and the Paul J Flory Award in Polymer Characterization, 2017. He is an Editor of Carbohydrate Polymers. He speaks English, French and German, and basic Manadarin.

About his talk:

"Designer foods: starch molecular fine structural features controlling digestibility and palatability"

Cereal-based foods with high amylose contents are digested slowly to glucose and thus are advantageous for avoidance and management of diabetes. However, these foods usually do not have a pleasant taste. Using trained human panellists and novel techniques for characterizing starch molecular structure, the structural features responsible for the bad textural attributes are identified. This can enable plant breeders to select cereals which have both slow starch digestion and acceptable palatability.