The talk will provide an overview of how particle technology education is being delivered in Australia with an example of the program offered at the School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW Sydney. The School offers coursework degrees in Chemical Engineering, Chemical Product Engineering, and Food Science at undergraduate level, and Master of Engineering Science specialising in chemical and food process engineering at postgraduate level. The fundamental properties and processes of particulate materials, and modelling approaches are offered as part of the core subjects at 2nd and 3rd year levels. The more advanced applications of particle technology are embedded in several discipline electives at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including in complex fluids microstructure, nanotechnology, food / pharmaceutical processing, and heterogenous catalysis. The talk will cover the potential direction for particle technology education for future engineers in the Australian context.

Prof. Cordelia Selomulya joined UNSW Sydney in December 2019 as a Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and as a Research & Commercialisation Director of the Future Food Systems CRC. She is leading a research group with an internationally recognised reputation in drying technology research, particularly for functional particle assembly via microfluidic spray drying. She was the recipient of IChemE Global Awards in Food and Drink category (2018) for the best project, process or product that demonstrates innovation to optimise manufacturing operations and contribute to the manufacturing of safe, sustainable food or drink, BHERT (Business & Higher Education Round Table) Award (2018) for outstanding collaboration in R&D for the Food and Dairy industries, and Fonterra Award (2017) for outstanding contribution in the industrial application of a novel technology in the field of bioprocessing. She was recently elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (2020). At UNSW, she is continuing her work to develop new functional dairy ingredients via spray drying, in collaboration with Penn State and Soochow Universities, supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery program. She is collaborating with Jacobs Douwe Egberts to improve spray-dried powder properties for beverage applications, EcoMag Ltd for spray drying of magnesium powders for nutraceutical applications, and Sanitarium Health Food Company to optimise their plant-based products.