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Dr. Elliot Gilbert
Introduction
Sydney will host the XV International Conference on Small Angle Scattering (SAS) in 2012, following a successful bid lead by Dr Elliot Gilbert in partnership with Business Events Sydney against Berlin and Knoxville.
Small-Angle Scattering (SAS) refers to techniques that probe the structure of materials, including both synthetic and biological materials, on distance scales ranging between 1 and several hundred nanometers.
Biography
Dr. Elliot Gilbert is programme leader for Food Science research at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney, Australia and co-responsible for the Quokka Small-Angle Neutron Scattering instrument.
He was born in London, completed a first degree in Chemical Physics at Edinburgh University before moving to Australia to undertake a PhD in polymer physics. This is where he was first exposed to the idea of using neutrons to probe structure and dynamics in materials. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship with a major international company studying emulsions for explosive application, he subsequently became a fellow at Argonne National Laboratory in the United States where he investigated the structure of confined polymers.
He was invited to return to Australia in late 2001 to lead the project for the design, construction and commissioning of the state-of-the-art small-angle neutron scattering instrument, Quokka, at the OPAL nuclear research reactor in Sydney. This instrument, exceeding a budget of $6 million, is now one of the best facilities of its kind in the world.
Elliot's interests lie in soft condensed matter science and he has investigated such diverse areas as phase separation in paraffins, biocompatible magnetic fluids for medical application and the nanostructure of composite materials for aerospace but now has an increasing focus on naturally occurring materials.
Elliot devised, initiated and leads a research group in the application of scattering to investigate fundamental and industrial problems of national significance in food materials science. One of the major outcomes from this programme thus far has been an understanding of the factors influencing the formation of resistant starch. This is a material whose intake is inversely correlated with the incidence of colorectal cancer - the most deadly non-gender specific cancer behind lung cancer and a disease for which Australia and New Zealand rank second in the world. However, the structure of resistant starch was previously not known. Dr. Gilbert's group has described resistant starch structure for the first time in terms of arrangement at the critical molecular level. He has also published the first major review of neutron scattering as applied to food-based systems in Trends in Food Science and Technology.
Dr. Gilbert (with collaborators at CSIRO and the University of Queensland) have set-up the Protein Syndicate - a consortium based on a successful British model in which the research providers are directly engaged with seven commercial partners across the food sector. This research assists food manufacturers understand the links between the nanostructure of protein-containing foods and their associated physical and biochemical properties, enabling them to predict and control the behaviour of raw materials and ingredients during food processing.
Apart from serving on a range of international advisory committees, since 2005, he has written submissions generating revenue of greater than $4.7 million and produced 142 publications, talks and presentations with a focus on applied research. He was also co-chair for the "Neutrons and Food" Workshop held in Sydney on 31 October- 3 Nov 2010.
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