The Harald Perten Prize is intended to recognize and reward outstanding achievements in science, research, teaching or transmission of knowledge which serve the cereal sciences and technology, primarily recognizing practical applications in the areas of starch, gluten and enzymes.

In full accordance with these demands this year's Harald Perten Prize is awarded to Katharina Scherf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany, and will be officially announced at the ICC2022 Conference in July 2022.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Scherf is heading the Department of Bioactive and Functional Food Chemistry, Institute of Applied Biosciences (KIT). Together with her team, she studies the complex interplay between structure, functionality and bioactivity of food biopolymers and uses these fundamental insights to improve food security, quality and safety.

Since 2012 her main interest has been laid on the functional properties of gluten and the effect of enzymes on gluten and bread. Additionally, her specific efforts have been focused on analytical, immunological, and biochemical aspects of celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy. Having studied food chemistry, Katharina Scherf obtained her PhD degree from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and was a research group leader at the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the TUM.

Her research was awarded with several prestigious scientific prizes, including the Research Award of the German Coeliac Society (2019 and 2014), the Young Scientist Research Award of the Cereals & Grains Association (2018) and the Gerhard-Billek-Prize of the German Chemical Society (2015).

Katharina Scherf is an exceptional scientist having brought her research to an impressive internationally esteemed level and, thus, is a worthy recipient of the Harald Perten Prize 2022.