Biography

Venkatesh Meda

Prof. Venkatesh Meda Ph.D., P.Eng., MBA (CED), FCSBE, FEIC, FEC

Professor and Graduate Chair (BLE)

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

(Food and Bioprocess Engineering)

University of Saskatchewan, CANADA

E-mail: venkatesh.meda@usask.ca 

  • Former Vice-president (Technical), Canadian Society of Bioengineering (CSBE)
  • Visiting Professor: QUT (Center for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities),
  • Brisbane, Australia; NIFTEM, VIT, SRMIST; India
  • Chair, Board of Directors, Protein Highway (USA/Canada)

Biography

Dr. Venkatesh Meda, P.Eng., is currently a Professor at the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department of the College of Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He began as a faculty member in 2002 after completing his post-graduate degrees in agricultural & bioresource engineering (M.Sc: 1996; Ph.D: 2002) from McGill University, Canada. He has established his research and development effort on the ‘post-harvest and value-added processing’ of agri-foods, including biological materials, through the utilization of electro-technologies and enhanced inter-disciplinary collaboration at USask. His expertise in the utilization of microwave, infrared, and UV energy in agri-foods has been recognized worldwide. He has established leadership in areas related to ‘microwave material processing’ (e.g., drying) research capabilities globally. He has supervised over 30 graduate students, PDFs, and visiting faculty/scholars from India, Brazil, Iran, China, Cameroon, and Turkey. Examples of projects that Dr. Meda has provided leadership roles are:

  1. Value-added engineering and management of agri-food systems
  2. Thermal and non-thermal processing of agricultural, food and bioproducts
  3. Utilization and processing (drying, extraction, dry fractionation) of plant co-products
  4. Process optimization for food safety & quality; and
  5. Innovative technology for food waste reduction and management strategy

He is recognized for his expertise in providing strategic leadership, business entrepreneurship education, International R&D partnerships, and Innovation. Enterprise skills related to the Agri-food and material processing sector (e.g., plant-based proteins) in the overall value-chain economy. He was recently recognized as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and Engineers Canada (EIC, EC) and received a 2022 Educator of the Year award from the Saskatoon Engineering Society (SES). Dr. Meda was a recipient of the USask’s J.W. George Ivany Internationalization Award in 2022-23.