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The Food and Soft Materials Research Lab – Our Group Members

View the Group Members for the Food and Soft Materials Group.


At the Food and Soft Materials Research Group,
we’re an active group with a great working vibe.

Each member adds to our diversity – often with a variety of academic backgrounds and a unique perspective
on food as a material. We're always looking for enthusiastic individuals to join our team and expand our research efforts.
Many alumni have gone on to do great work in science.

Postdoctoral
Researchers

Khakhanang Wijarnprecha
Khakhanang Wijarnprecha

Khakhanang (Yim) has been working on the crystallization of fats in different systems, ie., oleogels, animal fats, and emulsions. She is studying the properties of the fat components of crème fillings including their thermal behaviour, microstructural characteristics, polymorphic transitions, rheological, and textural properties.

 

    Credentials

    Ph.D. Food Science
    (Silpakorn University, Thailand)

Danilo Corsi Vidotto
Danilo Corsi Vidotto

Danilo studies the stability of plant protein emulsions aiming to understand the interaction of protein-surfactants. He is interested in exploring the role of fat crystallization in the stabilization of plant protein emulsions. His interests also comprehend the impact of the protein-surfactant interaction and the fat crystallization in drug release.

 

    Credentials

    Ph.D. Food Science

    (University of Campinas – Brazil)

Goly Fayaz Dastgerdi
Goly Fayaz Dastgerdi

Goly is currently working on oil-in-water emulsion systems in terms of their shear resistance and robustness to temperature-cycling. The ultimate aim is to develop a non-dairy cream that mimics the functionality of UHT dairy cream. She is interested in understanding the relationship between surfactants and fat crystallization, intra-droplet fat crystal morphology and polymorphism, and the rheological properties of oil-water interfaces

 

   Credentials

    Ph.D. Food Science and Technology
    (Isfahan University of Technology – Iran)

Ph.D.
Candidates

Jessica Phulchand

Jessica Phulchand

Jessica is interested in understanding functional foods and developing foods with clean labels. She works on the effects of surfactant concentration on fat crystallization.


    Credentials

    M.Sc.  Human Health & Nutritional Science
    (University of Guelph)

 

Malek El-Aooiti

Malek El-Aooiti

Malek specializes in controlling the stability of Pickering emulsions by modifying the interfacially-bound particles in-situ. Malek's focus is on using secondary surfactants and studying how they interfact with particles at the oil-water interface. This involves the use of interfacial rheology and advances microsocpy techniques. 

 

    Credentials

    B.Sc. Chemistry
    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

 

Selvyn Simoes

Selvyn Simoes

Selvyn is developing novel methods of edible oil structuring to replace saturated and trans fats and minimize their deleterious effect on human health. He uses particle properties, their interaction with immiscible fluids, and  oleogelators (oil gelling agents) to give liquid oils a solid-like structure via combination of capillary suspensions and oleogel networks. Selvyn's focus is the characterization of the individual and combined interactions between the components of his system and how they contribute to overall rheology and microstructure. 

 

    Credentials

    M.Sc. Chemistry 2019

    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Natália Mello

Natália Mello

Natália works with water-in-oil high internal phase emulsions, systems composed of over 74% v/v of water. She is currently focused on understanding how changing the composition of these emulsions may tune their functionality. Combining results, especially from rheology and microscopy, structure-function relationship may be elucidated.



 

Credentials

M.Sc. Food Science
(University of Campinas, Brazil)

 

Veronica Hislop

Veronica Hislop

Veronica is interested in tailoring the texture and rheology of water-in-oil emulsions by tuning the interfacial design of dispersed water droplets and their interaction with fat crystals. The aim is to control the structure formation and breakdown behaviour of these emulsions.

 

Credentials

 B.Sc. Chemistry
(Toronto Metropolitan University)

Shweta Lad

Shweta Lad

Shweta studies the formation of liquid crystals, and how parameters (such as concentration, and surfactant types) affect nucleation and crystallization at the oil/water interface versus in bulk. She works at improved rheology, stability, texture of emulsion and formation of different LC structures, such as lamellar, nematic and hexagonal.


Credentials

B.Sc. Materials and Nanosciences
(Waterloo University)

 

Raphael De Henau

Raphael De Henau

Raphaël explores food structuring using hydrocolloids. He designs functional food scaffolds and studies the microstructure governing the resulting mechanical properties. His work focuses on the development of soft-materials for use as meat analogs.

 

    Credentials

    M.Sc. Industrial engineering

    (Institut supérieur industriel agronomique de Huy, Belgium)



Robert Jordan Carrillo Zurita

Robert Jordan Carrillo Zurita

Robert "Jordan" is currently exploring the structuring of oil-based systems, using proteins as an oleogelator. He currently works on functionalizing protein isolates for their co-option as building blocks in polymeric, 3D networks capable of assimilating and embedding oil. The aim is to apply oleogelation to oil-based systems incorporating organic particles. 

Jordan is also the VP of Finance for the Molecular Science Graduate Course Union for the 2024-2025 academic year!

 

    Credentials

    B.Sc. Biology (Hons)

    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

 

Ricardo De Almeida
Ricardo De Almeida

Ricardo studies the breakdown of food microstructures. He uses in-vitro digestion models to investigate how food matrices impact their digestion kinetics. His goal is to make processed food healthier.

 

 

    Credentials

    B.Sc. Pharmacy

    (University of the Sacred Heart - UNISAGRADO, Brazil)

Armando Spina
Armando Spina

Armando recently completed his M.Sc. degree on the microdosimetric modelling of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of antiproton annihilation.

 

    Credentials:

M.Sc. Medical Physics

    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Quinton Ropret
Quinton Ropret

Quinton studies the interfacial behaviour of emulsifiers and fat crystals at the oil-water interface. His work is focused on the emulsifier-fat crystal layer that forms at the interface, namely the nucleation of fat crystals and their interactions with various emulsifiers. He works with interfacial rheology, interfacial tensiometry and microscopy.

Quinton also serves as the Vice President for the 2025-2025 Molecular Science Graduate Course Union!

 

    Credentials:

    B.Sc. Biomedical Sciences (Hons)

    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

M.Sc.
Students

Katia Kent
Katia Kent

Katia is currently measuring stability differences in particle-stabilized and shell-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions. Specifically she is interested in determining how polarity and surface charge affects the interfacial film morphology of these emulsions.

Katia also holds the position of Co-Vice President of Events on the 2023-2024 executive commitee for the Molecular Science Graduate Course Union!


    Credentials

    BA Biology and Psychology
    (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Mikhail Clemente
Mikhail Clemente

Mikhail recently joined our laboratory following the completion of his undergraduate degree. His previous experiences have seen him develop microfluidic devices for the development of emulsion droplets.

 

    Credentials

    B.Sc. Chemistry 
    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Research
Technician

Andrii Goralchuk
Andrii Goralchuk

Andrii is our lab technician, responsible for sample imaging using advanced techniques, including electron and RAMAN confocal microscopy.

In his native Ukraine, Andrii was a highly experienced product developer with a strong background in food chemistry and a track record of successfully developing and commercializing new food products. 


    Credentials
D.Sc Engineering, Food Science and Technology

(Kharkiv State University of Food Technology and Trade)

Visiting
Scholars

Lorenzo De Berardinis
Lorenzo De Berardinis

Lorenzo is working on the development and characterisation of bioaerogels from different precursors (i.e., proteins, polysaccharides and plant tissues). Bioaerogels present high porosity and internal surface area, representing groundbreaking functional materials for food applications. Thanks to these characteristics, Lorenzo is studying the application of bioaerogel to (i) structure large amounts of liquid oil leading to plastic materials with rheological properties comparable to those of commercial saturated fats, and with an improved nutritional profile; (ii) deliver bioactive compounds during food process, storage and digestion.


   Credentials

   M.Sc. Food Science and Technology
  (Università degli Studi di Udine - Italy)

Undergraduate
Students

Thea-Camile Ramilo
Thea-Camile Ramilo

Thea-Camile previously worked as an undergraduate volunteer. Currently, she is completing her undergraduate thesis, investigating the formation of protein capillary oleogles using insoluble pea protein aggregates

Thea also holds the position of Vice President of Community Development on the 2024 executive commitee for TMU's Association of Undergraduate Wom.en in Science!

Andrea Johnson
Andrea Johnson

Andrea works under Goly.

Pauline Ma
Pauline Ma

Pauline works under Raphael.

Sedra Hourani
Sedra Hourani

Sedra works under Quinton.

Past 

Members

Former Ph.D. Students

Ruby Rafanan

Tu Tran

Ryan West

Former Undergraduate Students (Thesis)

Elisha Domingos

Jordan Carrillo-Zurita

Rebecca Liatsidis

Tenzin Tselha

Enea Lelaj

Adrian Argudo 

Andrew Castillo

Melinda Das

Kyle Vollet

 

Former Undergraduate Students (Research Assistants)

Madeline Huber

Sarah Martin

Alessiia Bisvas

Taryn Hoffman

Alessia Pileggi

Damaris Loor

Stesi Kambo

Stephanie Almeida

 

Former Master Students

Enea Lelaj

Delnavaz Yazdansepas

Kayla Schindler

Adrian Argudo

Vivek Patel

Former Post-Docs & Visiting Scholars

Lorenzo de Berardinis

Prof. Sopark "Ben" Sonwai

Dr. Jeffery Powell

Dr. Auke de Vries

Prof. Jaime David Perez-Martinez 

Dr. Naomi Arita Merino 

Dr. Kar Yeen Chong 

Dr. Jonathan Andrade

Dr. Philipp Fuhrmann

Dr. Ryan West

Dr. Nicole Green

Dr. Qing Guo