Professor Bettina Wolf Dipl.-Ing., Dr. sc. techn. ETH

School of Chemical Engineering
Professor in Microstructure Engineering

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5308
Email: b.wolf@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Bettina Wolf is Professor of Microstructure Engineering in the School of Chemical Engineering. Bettina is a part of the Food Formulation Engineering Research group. By developing new formulation engineering methods and techniques, the team is creating cutting-edge and novel approaches to food processing and the development of healthier, higher performance products.

She has previously held a research position as a Rheologist with a consumer goods multinational, and an academic post in Food Sciences, at the University of Nottingham. Bettina has published over 50 research papers in scientific journals and book chapters in the fields of emulsion science and processing, highly filled suspension systems, rheology and oral processing. Her research is often interdisciplinary and has been funded by industry and the Research Councils. In addition to food systems, her expertise includes personal care products. Bettina is a co-inventor on 5 patents.

She is enthusiastic about spreading the word about science and has given talks on chocolate as her favourite research material to various groups. Bettina is also a member of journal editing boards and the Executive Council of the European Society of Rheology.

Qualifications

Dr. sc. techn. ETH, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich: Food Process Engineering (1995)
Dipl.-Ing., Technical University of Karlsruhe (D): Chemical Engineering (1989)

Biography

Bettina qualified with a Dipl.-Ing. in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1989. She went on to commence her doctoral studies as part of her employment at the German Institute of Food Technology in Quakenbrueck (1989-1992), which she completed at ETH Zurich in 1995 (Dr sc. techn. ETH). Her doctoral studies and commercial projects during this time, and a further period spent as research assistant at ETH in the Laboratory of Food Process Engineering (1995 – 1997) have introduced Bettina to the rheology of complex systems including chocolate, their processing and the material science of liquid interfaces.

Bettina then applied her expertise to biopolymer systems during her research career in the Product Microstructure Unit and then Corporate Research of Unilever R&D Colworth (1997 – 2006), in view to developing food microstructures for healthier foods or enhanced functionality of personal care products while developing fundamental understanding of the processing behaviour of phase separated biopolymer mixtures. During this time, she was seconded to the Savoury Global Technology Centre in Germany (6 months).

Enjoying the research and working with intern students, Bettina decided on a career change and accepted an offer as Associate Professor in Biomaterials Sciences in the School of Biosciences (Division of Food Sciences) at the University of Nottingham. She created a research group, collaborating with colleagues in Sensory Sciences and Pharmacy, as well as industry, with many projects and outputs of interdisciplinary nature. To name just one grant, she has been a co-investigator in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food. After 12 years in Food Sciences, Bettina has moved on her current post at the University of Birmingham in 2018 - applying a more engineering based focus to her research streams in microstructure engineering from sustainable sources, emulsion processing, rheology and oral processing.

Bettina has taught physical sciences and engineering based elements in undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses in Food Sciences. She also has experience in setting up courses including at postgraduate research level, and course directorship

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Liu, R, Gomez Guarguati, C, Pelan, E, Wolf, B & Jesorka, A 2025, 'Core-shell droplet generation in an on-chip temperature gradient', European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejlt.70066

Campos Assumpcao de Amarante, M, Ong, L, Spyropoulos, F, Gras, SL & Wolf, B 2025, 'Dispersion conditions affect the physico-chemical and technofunctional properties of quinoa protein isolates precipitated with different acids', Food Hydrocolloids, vol. 163, 111043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2025.111043

Anderton, C, Wolf, B, Cicerelli, L, Lodaite, K, Plasencia Gil, I & Spyropoulos, F 2025, 'Formulation of agar fluid gels in the presence of sugar for confectionery applications', Journal of Food Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2025.112896

Erxleben, S, Pelan, E & Wolf, B 2024, 'Effect of the interplay between lipid phase properties and ethanol concentration on the stability of model cream liqueurs', Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, vol. 685, 133233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2024.133233

Campos Assumpcao de Amarante, M, Ong, L, Spyropoulos, F, Gras, S & Wolf, B 2024, 'Modulation of physico-chemical and technofunctional properties of quinoa protein isolate: Effect of precipitation acid', Food Chemistry, vol. 457, 140399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.140399

Sutcharit, P, Wattanakul, J, Price, R, di Bari, V, Gould, J, Yakubov, G, Wolf, B & Gray, DA 2023, 'Chloroplast/thylakoid-rich material: a possible alternative to the chemically synthesised flow enhancer polyglycerol polyricinoleate in oil-based systems', Food Research International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112472

Zhang, L, Gould, J & Wolf, B 2023, 'Formulation engineering of water-in-oil-in-water emulsions for salt reduction with sucrose oleate as a PGPR-alternative lipophilic emulsifier', Food Structure, vol. 35, 100309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foostr.2023.100309

Mao, Y, Gerrow, A, Ray, E, Diaz Perez, N, Edler, K, Wolf, B & Binner, E 2023, 'Lignin recovery from cocoa bean shell using microwave-assisted extraction and deep eutectic solvents', Bioresource Technology, vol. 372, 128680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2023.128680

Campos Assumpcao de Amarante, M, Maccalman, T, Harding, SE, Spyropoulos, F, Gras, SL & Wolf, B 2022, 'Atypical phase behaviour of quinoa protein isolate in mixture with maltodextrin', Food Research International, vol. 162, no. Part B, 112064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2022.112064

Price, R, Gray, D, Watson, N, Vieira, J & Wolf, B 2022, 'Linking the yield stress functionality of polyglycerol polyricinoleate in a highly filled suspension to its molecular properties', LWT - Food Science and Technology, vol. 165, 113704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2022.113704

Cuthill, H, Elleman, C, Curwen, T & Wolf, B 2021, 'Colloidal particles for Pickering emulsion stabilization prepared via antisolvent precipitation of lignin-rich cocoa shell extract', Foods, vol. 10, no. 2, 371. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10020371

Erxleben, S, Pelan, E & Wolf, B 2021, 'Effect of ethanol on the stability of sodium caseinate stabilised emulsions', Food Hydrocolloids.

Juyang, Z & Wolf, B 2021, 'Impact of type of sugar beet pectin–sodium caseinate interaction on emulsion properties at pH 4.5 and pH 7', Foods, vol. 10, no. 3, 631. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10030631

Li, X, Lu, Y, Adams, G, Zobel, H, Balance, S, Wolf, B & Harding, S 2020, 'Characterisation of the molecular properties of scleroglucan as an alternative rigid rod molecule to xanthan gum for oropharyngeal dysphagia', Food Hydrocolloids, vol. 101, 105446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2019.105446

Letter

Li, X, Harding, SE, Wolf, B & Yakubov, G 2022, 'Instrumental characterization of xanthan gum and scleroglucan solutions: comparison of rotational rheometry, capillary breakup extensional rheometry and soft-contact tribology', Food Hydrocolloids, vol. 130, 107681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2022.107681

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