Da-Wen Sun

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Sun.

孙大文 Da-Wen Sun
Da-Wen Sun
Born	Chaozhou, China
Occupation	Professor, Food Engineer

Sun Dawen (simplified Chinese: 孙大文; traditional Chinese: 孫大文; Mandarin Pinyin: Sūn Dàwén; Jyutping: Syun1 Daai6 Man6; ), known as Da-Wen Sun, is an academic and researcher in food engineering, and a member of Royal Irish Academy,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} the highest academic honour in Ireland.^[6]

Biography

Sun was born in Chaozhou, Guangdong, China. He received a first class BSc Honours and MSc in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering in China. He was appointed College Lecturer at National University of Ireland, Dublin (University College Dublin) in 1995, and was then Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor and full Professor. Sun is now Professor and Director of the Food Refrigeration and Computerised Food Technology Research Group in University College Dublin. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland (the Institution of Engineers of Ireland). He is also the CIGR Incoming President and a member of CIGR Executive Board, Editor-in-Chief of Food and Bioprocess Technology – an International Journal (Springer) (2010 Impact Factor = 3.576, ranked at the 4th position among 126 food science and technology journals indexed by SCI), Series Editor of Contemporary Food Engineering book series (CRC Press / Taylor & Francis), former Editor of Journal of Food Engineering (Elsevier), and editorial board member for Journal of Food Engineering (Elsevier), Journal of Food Process Engineering (Blackwell), Sensing and Instrumentation for Food Quality and Safety (Springer) and Czech Journal of Food Sciences. He is also a Chartered Engineer.

Academic career

Sun is an internationally recognized figure for his leadership in food engineering research and education.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} His main research activities include cooling, drying and refrigeration processes and systems, quality and safety of food products, bioprocess simulation and optimisation, and computer vision technology. Especially, his innovative studies on vacuum cooling of cooked meats, pizza quality inspection by computer vision, and edible films for shelf-life extension of fruit and vegetables have been widely reported in national and international media.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]} Results of his work have been published in about 600 papers including over 200 peer reviewed journal papers and more than 200 conference papers.^[29]

As a leading educator in food engineering, Sun has significantly contributed to the field. He has been conferred adjunct/ visiting/ consulting professorships from ten top universities in China including Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Agricultural University, South China University of Technology, Southern Yangtze University, and so on. In recognition of his significant contribution to food engineering worldwide and for his outstanding leadership in the field, the International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR) awarded him the CIGR Merit Award in 2000 and again in 2006,^[30][31] the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) based in the UK named him "Food Engineer of the Year 2004",^[32][33][34] in 2008 he was awarded CIGR Recognition Award in honour of his distinguished achievements as the top one percent of Agricultural Engineering scientists in the world.^[35] In 2007 he was presented with “AFST(I) Fellow Award” by the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India), and in 2010 he was presented with “CIGR Fellow Award”, the title of Fellow is the highest honour in CIGR, and is conferred to individuals who have made sustained, outstanding contributions worldwide. According to Thomson Scientific's Essential Science Indicators (ESI) updated as of 1 July 2010 to cover an 10-year plus four-month period (1 January 2000 – 30 April 2010), a total of 2,554 scientists are among the top one percent of the most cited scientists in the category of Agriculture Sciences (ISI Web of Science), and Sun is at the top of the list with his ranking of 31.

On 28 May 2010, he was awarded membership of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), which is the highest honour that can be attained by scholars and scientists working in Ireland; and at the 51st CIGR General Assembly held during the CIGR World Congress in Quebec City, Canada on 13-17 June 2010, he was elected Incoming President of CIGR, and will become CIGR President in 2013-2014 - the term of his CIGR presidency is six years, two years each for serving as Incoming President, President, and Past President.

Honours and awards

He has also received numerous awards for teaching and research excellence, including the President’s Research Fellowship, and twice receiving the President’s Research Award of University College Dublin.

• MRIA - Member of Royal Irish Academy, 2010
• CIGR Fellow Award, 2010, by CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering - formerly International Commission of Agricultural Engineering)
• CIGR Recognition Award, 2008, by CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural Engineering)
• AFST(I) Fellow Award, 2007, by Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India)
• CIGR Merit Award, 2006, by CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural Engineering)
• President's Research Fellowship, 2004/2005, by University College Dublin
• Food Engineer of the Year Award, 2004, by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK
• CIGR Merit Award, 2000, by CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural Engineering)
• President's Research Award, 2000/2001, by University College Dublin
• President's Research Award, 1998/1999, by University College Dublin
• Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 2000 -
• Who’s Who in the World, 1999 -

Research contribution

The research conducted by Sun and his research team is an important component in Food Process Engineering. The research has attracted the attention of quality publications including the prestigious New Scientist. Their 2001 issue (vol 172, issue 2321, 15 Dec, p 24) focused on the potential of edible food coatings to extend the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. A soya-based coating had already been used to preserve kiwi fruit for 37 days without any sign of rotting. The fruit normally lasts just a fortnight. The coating does much the same job as packaging, only better, according to Sun’s collaborator Shiying Xu, a food scientist at the Wuxi University of Light Industry in China. "Our film can inhibit gas exchange, control respiration rate, decrease nutrient loss, reduce evaporation and prevent the micro-organism growth that causes rotting," she explains. To protect a piece of fruit, you dip it in a solution of the coating, which dries to form a thin, transparent film. Although people usually peel kiwi fruit, the coating has to be edible because chemicals from it could migrate through the fruit's skin. The coating is a mixture of soya protein, a fatty acid called stearic acid, and pullulan—a sugary carbohydrate which is produced by a fungus and which forms sticky films. Xu says the coating should also work for apples, tomatoes and peppers, but the relative amounts of each constituent would have to be changed for each type of fruit, and that could make it expensive.

Sun says it's hard to tell just how long the coating would preserve other types of fruit, since they all have such varied shelf-lives. Citrus fruits, for example, can last months before rotting—and that's without the coating. Like the supercool substitute for menthol, the fruit-saving film will need to go through rigorous tests before it can be approved for commercial use, says Britain's Food Standards Agency.

In 2002 the New Scientist focused on spotting a perfect pizza (vol 176, issue 2373, 14 Dec, p 9). Lamenting the "inaccuracy and subjectivity" of quality controllers in pizza factories, Sun and Tadhg Brosnan suggested that the task demanded a more rigorous mathematical approach best done by a machine. They have turned to fuzzy logic and designed algorithms that can analyze snapshots of pizzas from digital cameras and automatically pick out rejects - the ones that just don't look tasty enough. In two papers in the Journal of Food Engineering (vol 57, p 81 and p 91), they explain how their invention can diagnose a variety of worrisome pizza ailments, including patchy sauce, sparse coverings of toppings such as mushrooms or ham, and that bane of so many would-be perfect pizzas, a base with "poor alignment".

Published works

Books by Da-Wen Sun include:

• Handbook of Food Safety Engineering, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 840 pp., ISBN 978-1-4443-3334-3 (2011).
• Handbook of Frozen Food Processing and Packaging, 2nd Edition, CRC Press / Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, 880 pp., ISBN 978-1-4398360-4-0 (2011).
• Hyperspectral Imaging for Food Quality Analysis and Control, Academic Press / Elsevier, San Diego, California, USA, 528pp., ISBN 978-0123747532 (2010).
• Infrared Spectroscopy for Food Quality Analysis and Control, Elsevier, 448 pp., ISBN 978-0-12-374136-3 (2009)
• Modern Techniques for Food Authentication, Elsevier, 684 pp., ISBN 978-0-12-374085-4 (2008)
• Computer Vision Technology for Food Quality Evaluation, Elsevier, 608 pp., ISBN 978-0-12-373642-0 (2008)
• Computational Fluid Dynamics in Food Processing, CRC Press, 760 pp., ISBN 978-0-8493-9286-3 (2007)
• Handbook of Frozen Food Processing and Packaging, CRC Press, USA, 737 pp., ISBN 978-1-57444-607-4 (2006)
• Thermal Food Processing: New Technologies and Quality Issues, CRC Press, 640 pp., ISBN 978-1-57444-628-9 (2006)
• Emerging Technologies for Food Processing, Elsevier, 792 pp., ISBN 978-0-12-676757-5 (2005)
• Advances in Food Refrigeration, Leatherhead Publishing, 482 pp., ISBN 0-905748-83-2 (2001)
• The University Structure and Curricula on Agricultural Engineering, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 233 pp., ISBN 92-5-104447-3 (2000)

Chairmanship of International Conferences

Da-Wen Sun has been regularly invited to serve chairman / chair of international conferences, some recent appointments are

• Member of Scientific Advisory Committee, 11th International Agricultural Mechanisation and Energy Congress, Istanbul, Turkey, 20-23 September 2011.
• Member of Organising Committee, 9th International Conference of Food Science and Technology (ICFST), 27-29 May 2011, Hangzhou, China.
• Member of Academic Committee, International Conference on Agricultural Engineering New Technology (ICAE2011), 27-29 May 2011, Zibo, China.
• Member of Scientific Committee, 11th International Congress on Engineering and Food (ICEF 11), Athens, Greece, 22 - 26 May 2011.
• Session Chair, 11th International Congress on Engineering and Food (ICEF 11), Athens, Greece, 22 - 26 May 2011.
• Chairman of the Symposium, 6th International CIGR Technical Symposium on Toward a Sustainable Food Chain, Nantes, France, 18 - 20 April 2011.
• Session Chair, 4th International Conference on Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture, 22-25 October 2010, Nanchang, China.
• Member of Academic Committee, International Agricultural Engineering Conference 2010 (IAEC2010), Shanghai, China, 17 – 20 September 2010.
• Session Chair, XVIIth World Congress of CIGR, Québec City, Canada, 13 - 17 June 2010.
• Member of Scientific Committee, 19th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA 2010 and 7th European Congress of Chemical Engineering ECCE-7 - Symposium on Food Processing and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, 28 August - 1 September 2010.
• Chairman of Organising Committee, 6th Food Science International Symposium, Beijing, China, 5 – 11 August, 2010.
• Chairman of the Conference and Chairman of the Organising Committee, 5th International Symposium of CIGR Section VI on Food Processing, Monitoring Technology in Bioprocesses and Food Quality Management, Potsdam, Germany, 31 August - 2 September 2009.
• Session Chair, 3rd International Congress on Food and Nutrition, Antalya, Turkey, 22-25 April 2009.
• Member of Scientific Committee, Frutic Chile 2009 – 8th International Symposium on Information and Technology for the Sustainable Production of Fruit and Vegetables, Nuts, Wines and Olives, Concepcion, Chile, 5 - 9 January 2009.
• Session Chair, 10th International Congress on Mechanization and Energy in Agriculture, Antalya, Turkey, 14 - 17 October 2008.
• Member of Scientific Committee, 10th International Congress on Mechanization and Energy in Agriculture, Antalya, Turkey, 14 - 17 October 2008.
• Session Chair, 2nd CIGR International Conference of Agricultural Engineering 2008, Iguassu Falls City, Brazil, 31 August - 4 September 2008.
• Chairman of the Conference and Chairman of the Organising Committee, 4th International Symposium of CIGR Section VI on Food and Bioprocess Technology, Iguassu Falls City, Brazil, 31 August - 4 September 2008.
• Member of Scientific Committee, 18th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering - Symposium on Food Processing and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 - 28 August 2008.
• Member of International Scientific Committee, Model-IT 2008 - IV International Symposium on Applications of Modelling as an Innovative Technology in the Agri-Food Chain, Madrid, Spain, 9 - 11 June 2008.
• Session Chair, 10th International Congress on Engineering and Food (ICEF 10), Viña del Mar, Chile, 20-24 April 2008.

References

1. ^ SCUT alumnus SUN Dawen elected as academician of Royal Irish Academy
2. ^ People's Daily: Chinese Professor Elected as a Member of Royal Irish Academy (Chinese)
3. ^ China Central Television: Chinese Professor Da-Wen Sun Elected as a Member of Royal Irish Academy (Chinese)
4. ^ Science Times: Da-Wen Sun Elected as a Member of Royal Irish Academy (Chinese)
5. ^ China News Service (CNS): Chinese Professor Da-Wen Sun Elected as a Member of Royal Irish Academy (Chinese)
6. ^ http://www.ria.ie/our-work/membership.aspx
7. ^ Editor-in-Chief tops the world rankings in Agriculture Sciences!
8. ^ UCD Professor tops the world rankings in Agriculture Sciences
9. ^ China Scholars Abroad: Chinese scholar Da-Wen Sun tops the world rankings in Agriculture Sciences (Chinese)
10. ^ Chaozhou Daily: Agricultural Sciences Leader - Professor Da-Wen Sun, a Chaoshanese in Ireland (Chinese)
11. ^ Chaozhou Daily: Standing on Top of The World in the Field of Food Engineering Research (Chinese)
12. ^ Plus magazine: Fuzzy pizza
13. ^ New Scientist: Soya film has fresh fruit all wrapped up
14. ^ Irish Times: Chilling without the pressure
15. ^ The Times Higher Education Supplement: Pizza's perfect with chips
16. ^ New Scientist: We hear that…
17. ^ The Daily Telegraph: Soya skin keeps fruit fresh
18. ^ Pizza marketplace: Irish researchers develop perfect pizza scanner
19. ^ UCD developing fruit and veg preserve, P. 12, Checkout Ireland, Vol. 28, No. 2, March, 2002
20. ^ The Times of India: Rational Men - The rise of extreme logic
21. ^ The Hindu: Focus on food nutrition, security at international convention
22. ^ Hindustan Times: Slice of sameness
23. ^ Agroalimentaire - Refroidir les aliments par le vide (French)
24. ^ Intérêt de la combinaison refroidissement sous vide et refroidissement par air ventilé pour la viande bovine cuite (French)
25. ^ LifeGate: Matematica, logica fuzzy e pizza (Italian)
26. ^ Heise Online: Computer sortiert Tiefkühlpizzas (German)
27. ^ Avaliação da qualidade de pizzas usando análises de imagens (Portuguese)
28. ^ Sympozjum CIGR w Warszawie (Polish)
29. ^ List of Publications of Professeur Da-Wen Sun
30. ^ Xinhua News Agency: A Tale about Dr Da-Wen Sun - a World Renowned Food Engineering Expert (Chinese)
31. ^ China Scholars Abroad: A Story About Dr Da-Wen Sun – My Heart Is with China (Chinese)
32. ^ China Scholars Abroad: Dr Da-Wen Sun Was Awarded British Royal "Food Engineer of the Year" (Chinese)
33. ^ People's Daily: Professor Da-Wen Sun of National University of Ireland Won British "Food Engineer of the Year" (Chinese)
34. ^ Xinhua News Agency: Professor Da-Wen Sun Was Awarded British Royal "Food Engineer of the Year" (Chinese)
35. ^ UCD researchers honoured at International Agricultural Engineering conference

External links

• Professor Da-Wen Sun
• UCD Food Refrigeration & Computerised Food Technology
• Complete List of Publications by Da-Wen Sun

Persondata
Name	Sun, Da-Wen
Alternative names
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Date of birth
Place of birth	Chaozhou, China
Date of death
Place of death