At ICC2025, scientific excellence and innovation took centre stage as we recognised outstanding contributions from our cereal science community. The Journal of Cereal Science (JCS), published by Elsevier, proudly sponsored the “Best Speaker” and “Best Poster” awards at ICC2025, shining a spotlight on excellence and innovation within our community. JCS was represented onsite by Qierui Zhang, who joined us in celebrating the awardees.
We warmly congratulate the winners of the Best Speaker Awards, whose presentations inspired and energised the audience.
- Fang Fang, Aarhus University, Denmark: “Three-way interactions among polyphenols, cell walls, and starch: implications for starch swelling, retrogradation, and digestibility.” This work provides new biochemical insights with relevance for both academia and industry.
- Robert Fribus, University of Hohenheim, Germany: “In-situ structuring and texture moderation of starch-based materials using a microfoaming-assisted 3D-printing approach.” The presentation introduced an innovative approach at the intersection of texture engineering and food processing.
Sincere thanks go to the award committee, chaired by ICC President Elect Dhan Bhandari, for reviewing a large number of excellent poster contributions. The selected posters demonstrate how current research is driving cereal science forward.
- Ngo Van Tai & Naphatrapi Luangsakul, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand: “Designing elderly-friendly rice porridge: role of flour type and concentration on digestibility, texture, and bioaccessibility properties.”
- Rafaela Scheibelberger, Eleonora Pichler, Jana Kant, Viktoria Zettel, Gisela Wenger-Oehn, Mario Jekle & Regine Schönlechner, BOKU Food Tech, University, Austria: “Impact of roasting on the functional and nutritional properties of sorghum grain.”
Warm thanks to all presenters and participants whose contributions fostered lively discussion, new ideas and international collaboration in cereal science. The award-winning work sets new benchmarks for our field and underlines the importance of global partnerships in research and innovation.
