INTRODUCTION TO FLAVORS WORKSHOP

Robert Sobel serves McCormick & Company as Vice President of Research & Innovation, Americas Flavor Solutions, developing new and novel flavor encapsulation delivery systems and taste modification technologies. He has over 20 years of industrial flavor R&D experience at McCormick-FONA, located in Geneva, Illinois, USA. Before joining McCormick, Robert was an educator within both secondary and undergraduate settings teaching chemistry and physics.

Robert received a B.S. in chemistry with a minor in physics from Northern Illinois University, his M.A. in educational leadership from Aurora University, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Northern Illinois University. Graduate research emphasis includes physical chemistry and unified separation science.

Robert has published manuscripts in Analytical Chemica Actica, The Journal of Chemical Education, ACS Omega, and Perfumer & Flavorist; Editor of Microencapsulation in the Food Industry 2nd Edition. He is cited as an inventor on many patents and patents pending in the art of microencapsulation, flavor systems for natural materials, and synthesis of novel sensate compounds. Dr. Sobel is the lead faculty of Flavor University® and has given a variety of technical symposia on topics such as: the controlled release of flavor, neuroscience of flavor perception, analysis of flavor encapsulates, challenges of microencapsulation of flavors, proteins and polysaccharides as microencapsulating agents, and design of experiments for scalability and quality improvement of spray drying flavorants.

Richard Pisano Jr is the President of Citrus and Allied Essences Ltd a leading global supplier of processed essential oils and related flavor and fragrance ingredients that has been owned and managed by his family for 90 years. Since 1982, Richard has worked at C&A in a variety of capacities, including Sales Representative, Treasurer, and Executive Vice President.

Richard has served on the Boards and been President of: FEMA, the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association, Chem-Sources, The Chemical Sources Association, NAFFS –The National Association of Flavors and Food-Ingredient Systems, as well as having served on the boards of the International Fragrance Association of North America and the International Organization of the Flavor Industry, headquartered in Belgium.

In 2018, he was awarded the “Richard Hall Distinguished Service Award” for service to the US Flavor Industry. This marked the first time a father and son have had that honor.

Richard is passionate about flavor ingredients, essential oils and the issues regarding their safety. He is a natural teacher and has helped to create two courses for the Flavor Industry, including one on Flavor Ingredients for the Non-Flavorist and Natural Products Procurement.

Over one thousand Food Science majors in the United States have witnessed his presentation entitled Sharing the Story of The Science and Safety of Flavor Ingredients.

Richard is an accomplished blue-water sailor, a singer, a photographer and a skier.

He has also served as Treasurer of his church on Long Island and serves the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity as Secretary of the TKE Foundation as well as in the capacity as Chair of the Alumni Board of Advisors for TKE at Bucknell University, his alma mater.