Dr. Mridula D. presently Senior Scientist (Food & Nutrition) at Division of Food Grains & Oilseeds Processing, Central Institute of Postharvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, Punjab under ICAR, which is a nodal institute to undertake lead researches in Post Harvest Management and Value Addition. She got her Master's and Ph.D. degree from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, (U.P.). Her field of research interest is formulated nutritious foods, functional and designer foods, enriched foods and extrusion processing. In her 13 years of research experience, Dr Mridula has contributed one book, one compendium, 4 technical bulletins, 2 book chapters and 13 technical popular articles. She has so far published 36 research papers in various national and International Journals and 30 presentations in national and international conferences. She is also the chief editor of CIPHET Rajbhasha Patrika 'Krishi Prashanskaran Darpan' and so far brought out 10 issues of this Hindi Patrika. She is a recipient of the ICAR Award for Team Research in Agriculture and Allied Sciences (Engineering and Technology) for the Biennium 2005-2006. She is also the life member of various professional societies like Indian Science Congress, Nutrition Society of India, Indian Society of Agriculture Engineers and Bioved Research Society.
Dr. R. T. Patil, Principal Scientist (Agricultural Structures and Process Engineering and former Director of Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) under ICAR which is a nodal institute to undertake lead researches in Post Harvest Management and Value Addition. Dr, Patil has B. Tech degree (Ag. Engg.), M. Tech (Crop Process Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India and PhD in Bio Process Engineering from University of Saskatchewan, Canada and finished 2 years of Post Doctoral Fellowship at Washington State University, Pullman (USA). He has 32 year of research experience in food process engineering. He has contributed 12 books /bulletins and 22 books chapters. His areas of expertise are drying and dehydration, novel product development, physical properties and advanced extrusion processing. Dr. Patil has so far developed more than 22 research prototypes, 5 process protocols 3 pilot plants and contributed to two US patents and seven Indian patents with over 100 papers published in national and international journals and over 100 presentations (4 presentation awarded best paper award) in national and international conferences. Dr. Patil is a staunch promoter of food processing entrepreneurship at production catchment and has helped establish over 300 food processing industries. He is a recipient of Best Graduate thesis award of Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineers for his PhD and the team award from Ministry of Education, Government of Poland for Thermal Processing of Bio Materials. He was elected as Director (Food Process Engineering) of ISAE during 1998-2000 and was elected three times as Vice President of Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers and was Vice President, Association of Food Scientists and Technologist, India for 2010. Dr. Patil is a fellow of Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers, Institution of Engineers (India) and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Dr. M.R. Manikantan is presently Senior Scientist (Agricultural Structure & Process Engineering) at Food Grains & Oilseeds Processing Division, Central Institute of Postharvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana, Punjab under ICAR. He has Ph.D. degree in the field of Agricultural Processing from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. His fields of specialization are application of nanotechnology in food packaging, oilseeds processing, physical properties, drying and dehydration. He has also obtained Post Graduate Diploma in Operations and Human Resource Management from Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He also underwent advance training on "Post Harvest Rice Processing" in Japan. In his 12 years of research experience, he has published 22 research articles in both national and international referred journals, 7 technical popular articles, 5 national and international conference proceedings, 4 technical bulletins, 5 manuals, one compendium and one book chapters. He has so far developed 4 research prototypes, 5 process protocols and one pilot plant. His two research papers have been awarded as best research paper in national conferences. He is a recipient of Jawaharlal Nehru Award for Post Graduate Agricultural Research for the year 2010 for outstanding research in the field of Agricultural Engineering.
