ProfessorDolores O'Riordan

Dolores O'Riordan completed a PhD in Protein Chemistry and following some time as a research fellow at UCC and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York she moved to research in the industrial food sector. She had 6 years international industrial research and development experience in the area of food ingredients, as an employee of Kerry Ingredients, Plc. She developed and promoted the sale of innovative milk ingredients for the Irish, UK, mainland Europe, North and South American markets.She joined the Food Science team at UCD in 1995. Since then she has secured substantial funding from competitively won grants to conduct research in the area of food ingredients/health inducing food ingredients. There was an industrial contribution to the majority of the research grants reflecting the value of research to the food industry and the commercial potential of the output. She established a critical mass and an internationally recognised research team in the area of health inducing foods as evidenced by: invitations to chair and give presentations at international conferences; external evaluator of grant proposals; membership of Advisory Bodies and the development of international collaborations with leading institutes in the discipline of Food Science. Her research has led to a number of collaborations with Irish, North American and European Universities. A very important aspect of her work is collaboration with the food Industry. Her expertise in the areas of physical and chemical analysis of foods and food formulation technology under pins her research. Her current research focuses on enhancing the functionality and health benefits of food ingredients with a focus on food structure and digestibility. She is the Director of UCD's Institute of Food and Health. She is also UCD's Vice-President for Global Engagement.