Dr Amy Logan

Amy is an internationally recognised science impact and people leader with 20 years of research at CSIRO. She combines deep technical expertise with global insights for agrifood supply chains, strengthened through her 2024 Nuffield Fellowship. She specialises in translating fundamental research into tangible market applications, ensuring scientific innovation directly supports industry growth. A transformative leader, Amy is known for building high-performing teams and strong workplace culture that prioritises psychosocial safety, operational excellence, and measurable impact. She is also a principal scientific contributor and mentor, guiding postgraduate students as future scientific leaders.

Amy is a Principal Research Scientist, leading an impact-driven portfolio of complex and trans-disciplinary projects and delivering to internal and external stakeholders. In addition to her science leadership, she is the Group Leader for Food Quality (20 FTE + students & a pool of 15 trained sensory panel) sitting within the Food Program of the Agriculture and Food Research Unit. This group consists of three teams (food chemistry, food materials, and sensory and consumer science) and her role includes people leadership (mentoring and coaching), resource allocation, performance management and operational safety. She is also the Focus Area Lead for Food Design, a portfolio of research that provides know-how, technologies and solutions to assist the food industry and develop food options that also provide the taste, cost and convenience expected by Australian consumers. This role involves strategy development and the mapping of capability for growth through collaboration and recruitment.

Previously, she held the role of Impact Area Lead for the Healthy Foods portfolio of research within the CSIRO Agriculture and Food Research Unit (Sept 2020-2024). In this role she directed impact analyses (e.g., ex-ante and ex-post) and monitoring and evaluation (MEL) frameworks.

She is a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society (2016- ), and often asked to peer review articles for key journals including the International Dairy Journal, Food Hydrocolloids & Food Research International.

EXPERTISE AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
→ Dairy Science: chemistry, structure, processing and functional properties of dairy products
→ Macronutrients: chemistry, extraction and analysis of protein and lipids (dairy & plant-based)
→ Food Material Science: linking structure to texture, digestion and sensory perception
→ Upcycling: biomolecule analysis, valorisation of agro-industrial streams
→ AI and Innovation: AI modelling, emerging agrifood technologies

RECENT RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

→ Engineering dairy products: controlling protein and milkfat functionality from cow to consumer.
Milk protein performance is affected by natural variation (cow genetics, post translational modifications), composition, and environment (pH, salts) that can lead to inconsistent product quality. Moreover, protein-milkfat interactions can govern product functionality and taste perception. Amy’s work allows the food industry to control the structure and viscoelastic behaviour of dairy products such as foams, whipped cream, yoghurts and cheese to optimise functionality, texture, and sensorial attributes.

→ Plant-based innovation: closing the sensory gap for sustainable biomimetic products.
While consumer interest in plant-based products is growing, products in the marketplace often fail to meet expectations in terms of texture and flavour, hindering widespread adoption. Amy’s work is improving the acceptability of plant-based foods and beverages by overcoming sensorial and functional challenges.

→ Linking process to structure and stability: crystallisation behaviour of bulk lipid and emulsion systems.
Controlling the structure and sensory performance of fat in products such as butter, cream and margarine spreads is a challenge for the food industry, where quality is governed by crystal polymorphism and lipid microstructure. Amy’s work utilised advanced Synchrotron techniques with differential scanning colorimetry (DSC) and microscopy to obtain a real-time view of lipid crystallisation behaviour, providing insights that might directly tackle issues associated with control and predictability.

→ Functional food design: personalised nutrition and advanced manufacturing for vulnerable populations.
The older Australian demographic continues to grow, accounting for 16% of the population. This has significant implications for the countries health care system including a growing prevalence of dysphagia sufferers requiring strictly controlled texture modified diets. Amy’s work leverages advanced manufacturing, an understanding of structure-function, and nutritional science to create solutions that are safe and appealing for individuals requiring texture modification.

→ The food-body interface: controlling nutrient release and efficacy through food structure with in vitro digestion models.
Micronutrient deficiencies are a global problem leading to suboptimal health outcomes for many. Amy’s work focuses on understanding digestion kinetics and controlling the delivery and efficacy of nutrients.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

→ Sustainable lipid oleosome extraction technologies:
Timilsena, Y.P., Agarwal, D., Logan, A., Buckow, R. (2026). Oleosome extraction: Challenges, innovations, and opportunities for industrial applications. Journal of Food Engineering, 404, 112780

→ Plant-based innovation and smart fermentation for flavour and texture development:
Masiá, C., Fernandez-Varela, R., Logan, A., Regine, R., Bose, U., Ong, L., Gras, S., Jensen, P.E., Yazdi, S.R., Gambetta, J.M. (2025). Assessing the impact of bacterial blends, crosslinking enzyme and storage times on volatile and non-volatile compound production in fermented pea protein emulsion gels. Food Chemistry, 465: 142030

→ Hybrid food systems (plant-based and dairy) that address consumer health needs:
Logan, A., Chochet-Broch, M., Reynaud, L., Bouchama, M., Greaves, M., Puvanenthiran, A., Tobin, T. (2025). Physico-chemical and perceived textural attributes of pea and skim milk protein yoghurts compared to commercial thickened fluids. Applied Food Research, 101085

→ Linking the processing of dairy cheese with consumer sensory perception:
Eyres, G., Singh, T., Broch, M., Logan, A. (2024). Microfiltration of milk fat globules for particle size affects key sensory parameters of Cheddar cheese. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, 1-18

→ Nutritional product development from lab-scale to clinical application:
Logan, A., Taylor, C., Raynes, J., Stockmann, R., Ng, S., Clifford, V., Rumbold, A., Gibson, R., Makrides, M., Brown, R., Klein, L. (2024). Laboratory scale production of a powdered, multi-nutrient human milk fortifier. International Dairy Journal, 152, 105880

see Research Gate for full publication list:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amy-Logan/publications