Prof. Dr. Florian Kugler

After completing his doctorate at the University of Hohenheim's Institute of Food Science and Biotechnology, where he worked on the analysis and characterization of betalains for their use as natural colorants in food at the Chair of "Food of Plant Origin" under Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Reinold Carle, the native Swabian moved to North Rhine-Westphalia. There, Florian Kugler worked for many years in Krefeld and Düsseldorf in a managerial role at a global market leader for industrial gases and supervised projects in the food industry that focused on the use of food gases to optimize the quality and shelf life of food. As part of his professional activities, he was a member and for several years chairman of the "Food Gases" expert group of the Industriegaseverband e. V. (IGV).

In the summer semester of 2014, he was appointed to the professorship of "Science and Technology of Food" at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Kleve and since then has also been the course director for the "Food Science" Master's degree course introduced in the summer semester of 2013, which has so far produced well over 150 successful graduates whose knowledge and skills are valued by the food industry in the region, but also throughout Germany and abroad.

Florian Kugler and his working group conduct research in the field of valuable secondary plant metabolites, which are interesting from a food technological and nutritional point of view. He is involved in various research projects and is a member of the research focus "Sustainable Food Systems" at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences.

Florian Kugler is a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Qualitätsforschung (Pflanzliche Nahrungsmittel) e. V. (DGQ), the Gesellschaft Deutscher Lebensmitteltechnologen e. V. (GDL) and the Forschungskreis der Ernährungsindustrie e. V. (FEI). He is also a member of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) and the Society of Nutrition and Food Science e. V. (SNFS).