John Taylor

Prof Taylor is a full professor in the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences and is the research theme leader for Micronutrient Science in the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Wellbeing at the University of Pretoria. He undertakes research into the quality and processing of African cereal grains, especially sorghum and millets in three interrelating areas: grain quality and food quality with specific emphasis on nutritional quality, gluten-free baked goods, and protein-based biomaterials. Prof Taylor is involved in a number of international research projects, including two USAID Feed the Future Projects which are aimed at improving food security in sub-Saharan Africa. This year he chaired the local organising committee of the international conference on sorghum, ‘Sorghum in the 21st Century—Food, Feed and Fuel in a Rapidly Changing World’, which was held Cape Town.

Prof Taylor has been supervisor and co-supervisor of more than 90 MSc and PhD graduates and postdoctoral fellowships from across sub-Saharan Africa, many of whom now hold senior positions in academia, government and industry in Africa and across the world. He is the author or co-author of more than 170 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 35 book chapters and many technical reports to industry. Prof Taylor is currently co-editing the new edition of the standard American Association of Cereal Chemists international handbook on sorghum and millets. This year he has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cereal Science. In 2017, he co-edited the book Gluten-Free Ancient Grains—Cereals, Pseudocereals, and Legumes: Sustainable, Nutritious, and Health-Promoting Foods for the 21st Century, published by Elsevier.

From 2009 to 2010 Prof Taylor served as President of the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology and in 2015 he was elected as an Honorary President of the Association. He is the recipient of several awards, including Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, the Excellence in Teaching Award of the American Association of Cereal Chemists International (AACCI), Fellow of AACCI, Fellow of the International Academy for Food Science and Technology, Fellow of the Academy of the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology, and recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Research from the University of Pretoria. According to the South African National Research Foundation he is a B1-rated researcher who enjoys considerable international recognition as independent researchers of high quality.