Nikunj Naliyadhara is currently pursuing a PhD in Food Science and Technology at the UNSW Sydney. His academic journey commenced with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Processing Technology from Anand Agricultural University, India, securing the 24th rank among 20,000 aspirants in the GATE (National Eligibility Test for Postgraduate courses) exam. Nikunj has obtained a joint international master’s degree in food science and technology from one of the top institutes in India, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati and Gifu University, Japan. Before joining UNSW, Nikunj enhanced his skills through a tenure at the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), where he served as a graduate engineer. He was awarded the prestigious UIPA award in recognition of his PhD study at UNSW.
Nikunj has always been fascinated with non-thermal technology and has always wanted to work with these technologies to make food processing more sustainable. At UNSW he has undertaken a project where he is applying advanced non-thermal technologies for drying fruits and vegetables, aiming to develop novel drying methods that will be more energy efficient and maintain all nutrients of the food. Nikunj is supervised by experts in the field, Dr Francisco Trujillo and Professor Jayashree Arcot. His research pursuits received a substantial boost through a top-up scholarship from Future Food Systems CRC, facilitating the materialisation of his innovative project on ‘Development of Ultrasound and Infrared radiation assisted Atmospheric Freeze dryer.’
