SUGAR PROCESSING RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC. (SPRI)

2012 CONFERENCE ON SUGAR PROCESSING RESEARCH

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD WINNER

DR. JAN MAARTEN DE BRUIJN

SUGAR PROCESSING RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.

The 2012 SPRI Science and Technology Award Winner, Dr. Jan Maarten deBruijn, with Sudzucker, Germany, will be presented his award at the 2012 SPRI Conference: Sugar And Bio-products: International Research Needs for the Future, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, at the Chateau Bourbon Wyndham Hotel, on March 13, 2012. The award presentation posted below will be the keynote oral presentation at the conference in the Award Session on Monday, March 12, 2012, at the Chateau Bourbon Hotel. 

DR JAN MAARTEN DE BRUIJN - BIO

Dr. Jan Maarten de Bruijn was born in 1956 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He studied at the Delft University of Technology and obtained the Masters degree in chemical engineering in 1981 at the Department of Biosciences. At the Department of Organic Chemistry of the same university he obtained his PhD in 1986 with a thesis on the alkaline degradation of monosaccharides, e.g. the decomposition of invert sugar in the traditional beet juice purification process.

Jan Maarten began his career as Senior Research Scientist at the Central Laboratory of CSM Suiker in Breda. Subsequently he became Head of Chemistry in 1994 and finally Manager R&D of the Central Laboratory in 2005. In addition of managing the research and technological service activities of the Central Laboratory, he was chairman of CSM Suiker’s Innovation Steering Committee and Board member of the IRS Sugar Beet Research Institute, Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands. As a result of the reform of the EU Sugar Regime CSM Suiker bv was taken over in 2007 by Cosun/Suiker Unie, the other sugar company in the Netherlands. Looking for a new challenge and the opportunity to further develop the role as sugar scientist Jan Maarten joined British Sugar, now called AB Sugar, in 2008 as Head of Science in Group Technology of the corporate centre located in Peterborough, UK. Major achievements during the four years of employment at AB Sugar were setting-up standard factory lab facilities at the company’s beet factories in the north of China, as well as subsequent sugar technology knowledge transfer by intensive training programs and providing consultancy to improve process performance and extraction in the Chinese beet factories. He further made a major contribution to develop the so-called AB Sugar elearning campus, comprising both beet and cane processing, in his role as final editor and subject matter expert. In his desire to be more closely related to sugar R&D Jan Maarten will join the Central Research, Development and technological Services (CRDS) organization of Südzucker in Obrigheim, Germany as Coordinator Sugar Technology Südzucker Group as of 1^st March 2012.

Throughout his professional career in the sugar industry Jan Maarten showed great interest in understanding the scientific details of sugar chemistry and technology and to apply the acquired science to the factory practice. His broad area of interest/expertise comprises sugar degradation and color formation, process improvement including innovation in the sugar supply chain, the impact of beet quality on processing, valorization of co-products, analytical chemistry, knowledge management and sugar technology training.

Jan Maarten is well known throughout the sugar world because of his active participation in the international sugar network. Since 1999 he is President of the Scientific Committee of the European Society of Sugar Technology (ESST) and became Chairman of the IIRB Study group ‘Beet Quality & Storage’ in 2009. He is further member of other international sugar associations like ASSBT, VDZ, AvH and participated for many years in ICUMSA.

Jan Maarten published 40 scientific papers in the field of carbohydrate chemistry and sugar technology and is co-author of 2 patents.

SPRI SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AWARD PRESENTATION