Alumnus of the month - June 2011
Rob Winwood
BSc (Hons) Food Science and Food Technology, 1981
Upon achieving his degree at LSBU, Rob Winwood has become a respected Scientist and has achieved a successful career. He has been recognised for his achievements with a large number of academic papers to his name and in demand as a lecturer around the world.
Rob began his further education at LSBU studying the food science and food technology sandwich course. The course explores a very practical side of the industry preparing Rob for his placement at Flour Milling and Bakery Centre or FMBRA (today it is part of the Campden BRI Research Centre). “The nice thing about LSBU is that they train students to do the job”. This practical experience helped Rob to progress in his placement and thereafter.
Rob’s placement was split into two halves the first at FMBRA and the second at the Horlicks factory working (then part of Beecham Foods and now part of the GSK Empire) on research and development. From his experience gained and his qualification from LSBU Rob found a job straight after graduating as an industrial chemist at Tunnel AVEBE Starches Ltd.
The lecturers on Rob’s course were very well connected to the industry and keen for their students to go on to a successful career. One of the lecturers was connected to the South East branch of Institute of food science, so was able to gain access to professional talks and networking for the students. Rob found the membership extremely useful and decided to join once he had graduated and has maintained it continuously ever since.
Rob’s next move was to Mars (pedigree pet food) where he was offered a PhD Scholarship in food science at Nottingham University. Whilst studying Rob had to learn a variety of skills, writing software and learning German and Japanese in order to read the papers.
Rob travelled internationally for work having to get by in a variety of languages. He has become fluent in French, good in German and Dutch and has self taught Russian, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. Due to his ability to overcome language barriers he is often relied upon to communicate with colleagues overseas. His French is continuing to get stronger having spent time lecturing in French.
Rob developed his career with Kelco International and was head hunted again to become the Technical and Managing Director of UK and the Technical Director of Ireland of Merops Nutrition/Windsor Foods then the main cat food supplier of Tesco.
His next move was ADM where again he was Global, so travelled regularly for work. After 13 years in various business and scientific positions in the ADM food ingredients and oils and fats divisions, Rob then joined the specialist bioscience company and omega 3 fatty acid producer, Martek Biosciences (which was taken over by dutch company DSM at the end of March, 2011) two years ago as Director of Scientific Affairs.
Rob has had a very diverse career returning to his roots in the later years. He has become a very well respected scientist and is often in high demand as a lecturer at various science conferences around the world.
He has very fond memories of his time at LSBU and believes that it has made a great impact of his career; “The quality of teaching at LSBU was very good”. Rob is very happy at this point in his career and feels he has found his ideal job. We wish him every success for the future.