Chinese Senior Diplomats Visit UCD Food Engineering Laboratories

On 26 October 2019, a 10-member delegation from the Chinese Embassy in Ireland led by Chinese senior diplomats His Excellency Ambassador He Xiangdong and his wife Madam Xia Lining, Counsellor Xue He, First Secretary Hong Jiqing and First Secretary Zheng Dawei visited UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering. The event started with a research seminar followed by a technical tour to Professor Da-Wen Sun’s laboratories (UCD Food Refrigeration and Computerised Food Technology) and experimental demonstrations.

Group Photo in Front of UCD Agriculture & Food Science Centre (l-r: First Secretary Hong Jiqing, Ambassador He Xiangdong, Professor Da-Wen Sun, Madam Xia Lining)

Professor Da-Wen Sun introduced the research activities and cooperation in food engineering between UCD and Chinese universities. He and his team members then presented the advanced technologies of vacuum freezing, cold plasma, hyperspectral and computer vision systems, and terahertz on food preservation, food composition analysis, and food quality inspection. Experimental demonstrations on vacuum rapid cooling of vegetables, microwave-vacuum drying of foods, and hyperspectral imaging evaluation of food quality were also shown to the delegation.

Professor Da-Wen Sun introduces his published books to Ambassador He Xiangdong

Ambassador He Xiangdong said that food safety concerns the people's livelihood and is an important issue that is universally valued by all countries in the world. The cooperation between China and Ireland in the field of food research and trade is very close. It is expected that Academician Sun and his team will make persistent efforts to achieve more scientific research results in the field of food engineering, benefiting mankind and making greater contributions to China-Ireland cooperation.

UCD Food Refrigeration and Computerised Food Technology, directed by Professor Sun, is an internationally recognized centre of excellence for food engineering research and education. Currently, seven Chinese students funded by the UCD-CSC scholarship scheme are studying for their PhD degrees under the supervision of Professor Sun. The UCD-CSC scheme is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China to assist Chinese students to pursue postgraduate research at UCD leading to a PhD.

Ambassador He Xiangdong presents a souvenir to Professor Da-Wen Sun