5th Seaweed for Health

Conference

22th-24th May, 2024, Cork, Ireland

Susan L. Holdt (Denmark), Associate Professor at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU Food) has a broad experience in (bioactive) components, ingredients, threshold values and Danish and EU regulations of seaweeds. Susan are involved in multi-extraction of seaweed valorizing and optimizing the biomass use compared to the single-extraction of e.g. the existing carrageenan/hydrocolloid/stabilizing agent industry. All the research is applied with national and international aprtners within both research and businesses. She is the Secretary General of the International Seaweed Association, has initiated the Danish Seaweed Organisation (DSO; Danish-seaweed.dk) a marketing platform for seaweed companies, and she is chair of the cross disciplinary Seaweed Network in Denmark (www.tangnet.dk) initiated in 2008, with more than 360 members from industry, universities, organizations, national authorities, chefs, fish farmers, groups and persons that work with or have interest in seaweed. Susan was chair of the National Organizing Committee for the 22nd International Seaweed Symposium, Copenhagen 2016 (www.iss-2016.org) which the National Food Institute, DTU (DTU Food) is hosting. This won the prize in the category  “Best congress in Copenhagen in 2016 with less than 1,000 delegates”.

Stefan Kraan (Ireland), He moved to Ireland to pursue a PhD on phylogenetics and aquaculture of edible seaweeds at the National University of Ireland, Galway in 1998. He became manager of the Irish Seaweed Industry Organisation in 1998 and established the Irish Seaweed Centre in 2001, a dedicated R&D centre for seaweed-based research and development. In 2009 Stefan established Ocean Harvest Technology, a company dedicated in using seaweeds for animal health and production. After 8 years he resigned to pursue and develop some commercial ideas using seaweeds for a variety of purposes amongst them functional food ingredients for human food and novel algae cultivation systems for biomass production. He has organised the International Society for applied Phycology conference in 2008 in Galway and has been instrumental in several other seaweed meetings and conferences amongst them several International Seaweed Symposia. Dr Kraan is currently president of the International Seaweed Association.