Dr. Sara is an experienced Research and Development Scientist. She made her Ph.D. in the Food Process Engineering at University Putra Malaysia and has been a post-doctoral visiting scholar at Texas A&M University, Food and Protein R&D center. For over 8 years, she has been an Assistant Professor and a faculty member of the Department of Food Technology at Azad University, Tehran, Iran. She taught to the undergraduate and graduate students, conducted researches in the field, and supervised more than 15 M.Sc. theses.
Sara has years of experience in designing, executing, and leading research projects from bench-top to full commercialization.
Her activities focus on research and developments of fats and oils, essential oils and botanical extracts, biodiesel optimization, and sustainable energy sources. Dr. Sara has also conducted much comparative research on the formula development of animal- and plant-based protein isolates, alternative meat analogs, as well as on nutraceuticals and functional foods. Other fields of her expertise include the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and compliance with FDA 21 CFR 117, 111, and 121 regulatory rules.
In conjunction with her researches, she has published book chapters as well as 12 peer-reviewed articles in the leading journals of the Food Science. To date, Dr. Sara has delivered presentations at several international conferences and received the developing countries sponsorship award from IUFOST international conference, Montreal, Canada for the merit of her topic and her oral presentation in 2015.
She is now a technical advisor who strives on problem-solving projects in the food and beverage industries. She also manages some voluntary tasks such as being an active editorial board member of the Food Science journals and serving as the director-at-large at the North California section of the Institute of Food Technologists (NCIFT), the largest Food Science event of the year.