Dr Surjani Uthayakumaran is a highly experienced cereal chemist and Senior Analyst with the Analytical Services laboratories at AEGIC.
AEGIC’s Analytical Services, based in Sydney, provides industry-leading testing expertise to help Australia’s grain and food industries deliver the highest level of quality to their consumers. Services include grain quality testing, dietary fibre analysis, nutrition information panel testing, and many more analytical tests. It has been continuously accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) since 1952 – a significant achievement given the notoriously challenging audits which underpin NATA accreditation.
Surjani’s role involves the development of methods in the area of chromatography and analysing all forms of food matrices.
As well as being a crucial part of the Analytical Services team, Surjani is also involved in supporting AEGIC research projects, including developing methods to assess quality of Australian soft wheat.
What Surjani most enjoys about her role at AEGIC is working with a diverse group of colleagues who each bring a wealth of knowledge to the working environment.
For Surjani, increasing value in the Australian grain industry is achieved by identifying the best quality attributes of grain to a particular end use and working through the grain value chain (breeder to consumer) to maximise value to the Australian grain industry.
Surjani obtained her PhD in Cereal Chemistry from the University of Sydney. Prior to AEGIC she worked as a cereal chemist in Winnipeg, Canada, then at the CSIRO Food Science and Technology, as well as the University of Sydney.
As a parent of a child with disability, Surjani is a passionate advocate for people with disabilities to ensure they are able to access their fundamental rights within society.