Ghent University Chocolate Experts to Speak Friday, Promote Student Exchange and Research

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Koen Dewettinck (left) and Filip Van Bockstaele from Ghent University in Belgium, are on campus this week promoting chocolate, the exchange program with Bumpers College students and collaborative research with food science faculty.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Koen Dewettinck and Filip Van Bockstaele, both chocolate experts and professors at Ghent University, are visiting campus on Friday and speaking about chocolate science and engineering.

Dewettinck is presenting "World Class Sustainable Chocolate for Fun and Profit." He is an internationally recognized expert and adjunct professor in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Science's Department of Food Science.

The seminar is at 2:30 p.m. in Room 133 in the John W. Tyson Building (poultry science).

Bockstaele is making his first visit to the university and is giving a presentation on undergraduate and graduate study abroad, and internships at Ghent, and sharing information about study abroad opportunities. His session is Friday at 10:45 a.m. in Food Science Building Room D-2.

Both sessions are open to everyone.

Dewettinck is a professor and head of the Department of Food Safety and Food Quality at Ghent, and CEO of Cacao Lab and Consulting Laboratories. He leads a research group of about 30 people involved in food design on a mesoscopic scale. Their mission is answer the consumer requirements for innovative products that are tasty, healthy, convenient and affordable. He also focuses on valorization of byproducts. Their main product groups of interest are dairy, margarines and shortenings, and chocolate and confectionary products. Dewettinck is also chair of the international "Food Structure and Functionality Forum."

Bockstaele is also a member of the faculty in the Department of Food Safety and Food Quality.

The U of A, through the Department of Food Science, and Ghent have participated in a joint student exchange program since 2004.

Dewettinck has visited the U of A for 10 years to promote student exchange and for collaborative research projects with University Professor of food science Andy Proctor. Proctor has coordinated the food science student exchange partnership for Bumpers College.

The professors are also visiting with food science faculty to explore collaborative research opportunities, including assistant professor and food engineer Griffiths Atungulu, associate professor and sensory scientists Han-Seok Seo, professor and food chemist Luke Howard, interim department head Wayne Mackay and Bumpers College Dean Deacue Fields.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.