Vice-chair / Treasurer: Dr Maame Yaakwaah Blay Adjei (University of Ghana, Ghana) 

Dr Adjei completed her PhD in Wine Chemistry and Wine Sensory Science from Charles Sturt University in Australia in 2012. She joined the University of Ghana as a Lecturer in September 2013 where she teaches Food Science at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science. For her PhD Dr Adjei developed a novel method for measuring consumer preferences of wine known as the T-map scale technique. The scale uses the Relative Preference Mapping method, also developed by her to help users to quickly identify innovative new wine flavours in a wine show setting. Her method is presently being used within the wine industry in Australia as well as in Ghana. The method was presented at the prestigious Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium where it generated further interest within the Sensory Science community world wide. Dr Adjei’s current research interests are in Sensory and Consumer Science. She established and manages the first sensory science laboratory at the university. She is interested in industry engagement and works hard to build stronger working relationship with industry, providing technical support in product development using her strong sensory background.  She is also interested in Dairy and Dairy products research. She has supervised and worked on various projects in these areas.  Dr Adjei together with other researchers in the University of Ghana, completed a multimillion GHS project to improve the livelihoods of smallholder dairy farmers through improved milk yield and improved quality of milk and milk products in the informal market. She led the team to establish a virtual research centre in the university for dairy research through the Dairy Research, Improvement and Innovation Consortium (DRIInC), which she also heads. Other areas of her expertise include  food product testing with children, multivariate analysis in statistic and qualitative research methods.