Bio
Prof. Dr. Burim Ametaj is a Professor of Animal Physiology at the University of Alberta's Department of Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Science. He earned his PhD from Iowa State University in collaboration with the USDA's National Animal Disease Center. Additionally, Dr. Ametaj completed postdoctoral training at Iowa State University, Purdue University, and Cornell University before his appointment at the University of Alberta. His research is dedicated to better understanding the etiopathology of periparturient diseases in dairy cows, with a keen focus on developing new preventive and therapeutic technologies.

Bio
From 2005, he was Professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Cagliari (Italy). From 2001, he was coordinator of the high-resolution mass spectrometry laboratory of the Department of Life Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biology at the University of Cagliari. He is an expert in the development of high-resolution mass spectrometry methods (HRMS) using electrostatic trap (Orbitrap), ion mobility, and time of flight (IM-QTOFMS). He is an expert in the development of mass spectrometric methods to be used in the metabolomics and lipidomics of dairy products. He is also an expert of pre-clinical research and experimentation: study of the experimental design, multivariate statistics, and data analysis. From 2017, he was coordinator of the degree course Toxicology and Toxicological Sciences and involved in quality control at the University of Cagliari, Italy. Awards: From 2021, Accademico dei Georgofili (Firenze, Italy).

Bio
Dr. Manuel Castillo has a degree in Veterinary Medicine, as well as in Food Science and Technology. He joined UAB in 2009 from the University of Kentucky (USA), where he held the position of Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural and has retained the position of Associate Adjunct Professor until 2020. When joining UAB, he focused on transferring to EU his research line “Optical Food Process Optimization and Control” (OPTICmizing). He was promoted to Full Professor at UAB in June 2021. His teaching areas are food processing, and milk and dairy technology. Since 2023, he is the Director of the Innovation, Research and Transfer Center in Food Technology (CIRTTA) and the PI of the Consolidated Research Group “Optimization and Control of Food Processing for the Industry 4.0” (SGR; OPTIpro4.0). Optical technologies under development are based on light scatter properties, spectroscopy, and spectrometry (front-face fluorescence and UV/visible/NIR spectrometry), and address different food processing applications, most of them for the dairy industry. Dr. Castillo has gained significant international recognition by the scientific community endorsed by prestigious awards: International Dairy Foods Association Research Award in Dairy Food Processing ADSA, 2008, and Samuel Cate Prescott Award IFT, 2009.