Chibuike Udenigwe

Biography

Chibuike Udenigwe is a Professor of food biochemistry and the holder of the University Research Chair in Food Properties and Nutrient Bioavailability at the School of Nutrition Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada. He is also cross-appointed in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences and a Faculty Affiliate at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa. He received his BSc in Biochemistry (2003) at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He received his MSc in Chemistry (2007) and Ph.D. in Food and Nutritional Sciences (2010) at the University of Manitoba, and was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph.

Professor Udenigwe specializes in food biochemistry. His research takes the chemical sciences approach to explore food and health, food diversification, emerging food technologies, value-added processing, alternative proteins, and plant-based foods. He has published over 170 journal articles and book chapters, and is the Editor of “Food Proteins and Peptides: Emerging Biofunctions, Food and Biomaterial Applications” (2021, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK). In the recent past, he was a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, Director of uOttawa’s Food Policy and Regulatory Affairs Program, Chair of the Protein and Co-products Division of the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS), and Associate Editor for Journal of Functional Foods. He currently serves as Editor for Food Hydrocolloids for Health, Vice President of the Early Career Scientist Section of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology, member of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) Taskforce on COVID-19 and the Global Food System, and on several journal editorial boards, grant/award selection and steering committees of professional societies. He is the recipient of the American Chemical Society–Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Young Scientist Award (2018), AOCS Young Scientist Research Award (2018), and IUFoST Young Scientist Award (2012).

Awards