Dr. Michael Nickerson, PhD.
Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences
University of Saskatchewan
Dr. Michael Nickerson received his B.Sc. (Honors; Marine Biology), M.Sc. (Food Chemistry) and Ph.D. (Food Chemistry) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS (Canada). Currently, he is a Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Research Chair and Professor in the area of Protein Quality and Utilization within the Department of Food and Bioproduct Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. His research area focuses on improving the use plant protein ingredients within the food industry. His program has lead to 100+ internationally peer reviewed publications, and receives funding from Provincial, Federal and Industrial sources. Dr. Nickerson’s program focuses heavily on graduate student training to meet employment gaps within the protein ingredient sector.
Mission: The protein quality and utilization (PQU) group within the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Strategic Research Program focuses on developing innovative knowledge and technologies relating to the quality and utilization of proteins derived from Saskatchewan crops for food, feed and biomaterial applications.
The PQU program is divided into 4 key focus areas:
- Improving the quality of protein feedstocks derived from Saskatchewan crops and/or agriculture by-products.
- Developing new processing technologies for extracting and fractionating proteins.
- Improving the techno-functional properties of plant proteins.
- Value-added innovations in plant protein applications.