Food structure, breakdown and sensory perception
Markus Stieger (Wageningen University, NL):
“Oral pocessing through the life span: Interplay between food structure, sensory perception and  pleasure”

Interaction of food and oral anatomy
Mats Trulsson (Karolinska Institutet, SWE):
“Physiology of human orofacial mechanoreceptors”

Food oral processing and food design
for specific consumer groups
Julie Cichero (University of Queensland, AUS):
“Food design for infants, children and the elderly: Oral processing, swallowing and the symphony of taste, texture, colour, shape and sensation”

Food oral processing: first step of digestion
Marie-Agnès Peyron (INRA, FRA):
“Food oral processing: first step of digestion”

Physiology of Chewing and Swallowing
Robert S. Corruccini (Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, USA):
“Evolutionary background to human physiology of chewing and swallowing”

Analytical techniques to measure
food oral processing
Benjamin Le Révérend (Nestlé Research, CH):
“Experimental and numerical approaches in taste and texture perception; tools for sensory driven food prototyping”

Closing lectures : Perspectives on Food Oral Processing
Heribert Watzke (Consultant, formerly Nestlé Research, CH): “The raw and the cooked - The hidden side of food structures”
Peter W. Lucas (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, PAN): “The case for enhancing food texture for oral and general health”

Dr. Markus Stieger is an Associate Professor for Food Technology and Sensory Science at Wageningen University, Division of Human Nutrition (The Netherlands). He received a PhD in physical-chemistry from the University of Kiel (Germany). He leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists at Wageningen University and TI Food and Nutrition (The Netherlands). His current research focus is on the dynamic sensory perception of foods, especially texture and taste, in relation to food structure, breakdown properties and food oral processing behavior. At Wageningen University he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses. He is (co-) author of 2 patents and over 45 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Julie Cichero is a speech pathologist and dedicated specialist of feeding and swallowing disorders.  For 25 years Julie has worked clinically and conducted research into swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) from infancy to old age, and has worked in a range of public and private health care settings. Julie has been a lecturer and researcher affiliated with The University of Queensland since 1996 and is currently an Honorary Senior Fellow with the School of Pharmacy.

She is also an affiliate with the Schools of Chemical Engineering and Food Technology.  Julie is an invited national and international speaker in the area of dysphagia, and reviewer for 19 international journals in the fields of medicine, nursing, speech pathology, allied health, chemical engineering, nutrition and food technology. She has published more than 40 journal articles and co-authored four books.  Julie is co-chair for the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (www.iddsi.org).

Dr. Marie-Agnès Peyron (PhD, HDR) is a senior scientist at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), in the joint research Unit of Human Nutrition (UNH). Her specialties are oral functions and food oral processing from a physiological point of view. After several years working at the understanding of the regulation of the masticatory function, its adaptation to food properties and to individual abilities (specific populations, dental loss), she is now working on the role of mastication in nutrition.

To explore the impact of mastication and more generally of oral step in food digestion, she focuses her research on food bolus mechanical and biochemical properties after mastication. By focusing on food bolus, she is now working at pointing out the capacity of the masticatory function to influence digestion and food nutrient assimilation. She aims at understanding the benefits of mastication in digestion or nutrients absorption and consequences of deficient mastication, in elderly for example, on nutritional state. Based on her expertise, she participated in the conception of a masticator apparatus AM2 developed to prepare food boluses intended for mechanical and biochemical analyses in various contexts or further digestion steps.

Prof. Robert S. Corruccini is an American anthropologist, distinguished professor, Smithsonian Institution Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow, and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As a medical and dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on the theory of malocclusion. He conducted broad and comprehensive studies among a diverse number of populations, including an isolate population of European-Americans in rural Kentucky, the Pima Tribe, natives of India, hominoids, and modern Chinese; leading him to the conclusion that not all cases could be solely attributed to genetic factors. Corruccini asserted that the consumption of a western diet, or "Industrial Diet" may be one of the factors responsible for the swelling epidemic of malocclusions now appearing in modern human populations in western countries.

Dr. Benjamin Le Révérend  is a Research Scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne (CH). He graduated in Food Process Engineering from AgroParisTech (FR) in 2005 and gained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2009, for his work on the effects of processing on the phase change kinetics of fats during confectionery manufacturing. In 2009 he was offered a Research Fellowship in the same department to study the effects of sodium reduction on taste perception, which led to his interest in food oral processing. In particular he was attracted by the gap existing between traditional food science and technology and oral taste receptor research, and applying chemical engineering science to oral processes.

Since 2010, Benjamin is a Research Scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne (CH), where his main focus is the development of experimental and theoretical approaches to measure, explain and model food oral processing, collaborating with food scientists to translate such approaches into food designs. This has led Benjamin to approach oral sensory perception mechanisms such as texture and taste, but also aroma release and perception from a variety of food matrices, from extruded cereals to beverages. In his work Benjamin uses sensory, in vivo, in vitro and in silico experiments to test engineering models describing the oral machinery and decipher which product properties could have a sensory, nutritional or developmental impact on consumers.

Dr. Heribert Watzke is a graduate of the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria, with a PhD in chemistry. He graduated after studies in chemistry, experimental physics, history and philosophy. After a PostDoc position at the Syracuse University, New York, USA working on artificial photosynthesis (solar energy conversion), Dr. Watzke took a research and teaching position at the Polymer Institute (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETHZ) in Zürich, Switzerland. At ETHZ, his research focused on nanocolloid interactions and nano-composite materials. Heribert joined Nestlé at the Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland as colloid scientist in 1993, taking consecutively the positions of Head of Food Structure and Material Science group and Head of Food Science and Technology Department. He held the latter position for 9 years leading the

150 member strong department in its development of various innovations for the company.

In 2007 he changed to a new position working for the CTO as Senior Group Expert (Research Fellow Nestlé Research) focusing on emerging & novel technologies holding the position of an Assistant Vice President. Heribert has retired from Nestlé Research (Nestec Ltd.). Recently he has established his own consulting company, Dr. Phil. Watzke Heribert Consulting, Lausanne, Switzerland. His research interests are split between the impact of cooking on human evolution and the gut-brain axes, nanoscience of nutrient delivery and self-assembly and the creation of exaptive  innovation platforms. Heribert is also interested in popularizing food science and nutrition topics for the general public; see his talks on TED and MAD3, respectively.

Prof. Peter Lucas is currently Professor/Chair of the Bioclinical Sciences Department in the Faculty of Dentistry of Kuwait University. He holds a BSc Hons (1st class) from University College London, plus PhD and DSc from the University of London. He worked in the National University of Singapore, University of Hong Kong and George Washington University before moving to Kuwait in 2011. He has about 120 full journal papers and 35 book chapters in print, plus one book (Dental Functional Morphology – 2004). His research has always revolved around mastication and feeding processes, studying this not only in humans, but also in primates and other animals.