Friso van Assema

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Directly after my study “Bioprocess Technology” at Wageningen University, I started working as junior scientist molecular biology, biochemistry and fermentation technology at the Dutch Agro Technological Research Institute in Wageningen, The Netherlands. After about one year, I joined DSM Pharma Chemicals in Geleen, The Netherlands, as scientist molecular biology. In this position, I was involved in a metabolic pathway engineering project to make an ingredient for antibiotics via fermentation. After that, I became more and more involved in the field of applied biocatalysis, the synthesis of all kinds of pharmaceutical intermediates by using enzymes. I soon started to apply my knowledge of enzyme reactions at multi-ton production scale.
After 10 years of being in R&D, I changed my career in the direction of Human Resources, and I became the Corporate Recruiter for attracting and selecting people for the R&D disciplines of DSM.

Although I liked the “human” part of being a recruiter, I missed the scientific challenges from my R&D period. I therefore decided to return to R&D, but now in the field of food science. I started at NIZO Food Research in March 2009 as project leader in NIZO’s food processing department. In this role, with a focus on separation technologies, I'm involved in translating (scientific) ideas in food  to feasible processes. I'm also one of NIZO's focal points in the field of sustainability in food processing. In this role I'm involved in projects dealing with wastestream valorisation and process optimization.

Please visit my profile on linkedIn!