https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8673-6590
We are delighted to present a special issue of Drying Technology to celebrate the 50th birthday of Prof. Sakamon Devahastin of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand.
Serving Drying Technology in various capacities for almost three decades since his graduate student days at McGill University, one of the major research interests of Prof. Devahastin is naturally on drying, especially when being applied to foods and biomaterials. More specifically, Prof. Devahastin has been working on the development and study of various novel drying technologies for heat- and oxygen-sensitive materials, and also in drying and dried materials property and characterization as well as computational fluid dynamics and heat/mass transfer as related to drying. A recent check of a reputable database indicates that he is one of the world’s leading contributors to the literature on the drying of foods. With more than 240 papers in referred international journals 19 book chapters, 4 books/edited books and 4 patents, the contributions of Prof. Devahastin to drying and food engineering are well recognized, both in academia and industry. He has indeed successfully sought to translate laboratory results into real-world applications. The so-called low-pressure superheated drying process, whose first set of laboratory results was published in this journal in 2004, has, for example, been transferred to Natural Produces Co., Ltd. (Thailand) and is now in industrial operation, producing novel dried snacks that are on sale in premium supermarkets and online shops.
Among the many awards bestowed upon him, Prof. Devahastin was awarded the Young Technologist Award by the Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Technology under the Patronage of H.M. the King of Thailand in 2004; the TRF-CHE-Scopus® Researcher Award in Engineering and Multidisciplinary Category by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Commission on Higher Education (CHE) and Scopus® as well as the Taylor & Francis Award for Sustained Exemplary Service to Drying Technology and the Excellence in Drying Research Contributions by Taylor & Francis, both in 2009. He is the recipient of the 2012 National Outstanding Researcher Award (Engineering and Industrial Research Category) from the National Research Council of Thailand, the 2014 Award for Excellence in Drying from the Association Française pour le Séchage dans l’Industrie et l’Agriculture (French Drying Association for Industry and Agriculture), the 2018 Ajinomoto Award for Outstanding Food Science and Technology Researcher from the Ajinomoto Foundation and the Food Science and Technology Association of Thailand. Prof. Devahastin is the recipient of the 26th Thailand Toray Science & Technology Award, which was given by the Thailand Toray Science Foundation in 2019. He has been elected Associate Fellow of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Thailand since 2016.
On behalf of his colleagues, students, and friends, we wish Prof. Devahastin all the best and hope he continues to play a role in drying research for many years to come.
Department of Chemical Engineering,
King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi
[email protected]