Seamus Anthony O’Mahony
Biography
Dr. Seamus O'Mahony graduated from UCC with a BSc in Food Science and a PhD in Food Science and Technology in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He was awarded the National University of Ireland travel bursary in Food Science and Technology in 2002, which facilitated conducting part of his PhD studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the supervision of Prof. John Lucey. On completion of his PhD studies in 2005, Dr. O'Mahony was awarded an Embark Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology to progress his academic studies at the Teagasc, Moorepark Food Research Centre under the supervision of Dr. Tim Guinee.
In 2006, Dr. O'Mahony took up an industrial research and development position with a multinational pharmaceutical/food company specialising in the development of infant nutritional products. Over a 4 year period, he held a number of different roles with increasing responsibility and worked at the interface between Research & Development, Product Development and Operations and gained extensive experience in managing multi-disciplinary global ingredient, formula, process and product development projects.
Dr. O'Mahony's current research programme at UCC focuses on (1) food ingredients, structure and functionality, (2) isolation, enrichment and purification of food constituents, (3) nutritional product formulation, processing and functionality and (4) protein-carbohydrate interactions in food systems. Since joining UCC, Dr O'Mahony has also completed a Certificate and a Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education through the Ionad Bairre Teaching and Learning Centre at UCC.Since joining UCC, Dr O'Mahony has attracted over €4m in research income through competitive domestic and international funding programmes (e.g., FIRM, IRC, Enterprise Ireland, industry funding and EU FP7).
Dr O'Mahony is also strongly involved in the development and delivery of bespoke training courses in dairy science and technology, food ingredient development and infant frood formulation for adult learners working full-time in the Irish and international food industry as part of their continued professional development through the UCC Food Industry Training Unit.
Research Interests
Food ingredients, structure and functionality
Isolation, enrichment and purification of food constituents
Nutritional product formulation, processing and functionality
Protein-polysaccharide interactions in food systems