Rate My Professor Sushil Dhital

Associate Professor Sushil Dhital serves in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, where he joined in July 2019 and leads the Food Engineering and Nutrition research group. He earned his PhD in Food Technology from the University of Queensland in 2011, with a thesis on the structure-property relations of starch granules, followed by a Research Fellow position at the same institution examining starch-plant cell wall interactions. Dhital also holds a Master of Technology in Food from Tribhuvan University in 2007, a Master of Business Administration from Tribhuvan University in 2000, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from the University of Queensland. His academic career emphasizes cross-disciplinary research integrating physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering to explore structure-property-function-health relationships in food and food ingredients.

Dhital's research specializations include food structure involving interactions of macronutrients such as starch, proteins, lipids, and fibres; starch and dietary fibres for addressing metabolic diseases through foods with reduced starch digestibility; plant proteins for optimized isolation and functional products; and enzyme kinetics with in-vitro digestion models. He has edited key books, including 'Starch and Starchy Food Products: Improving Human Health' (2022, with Luis Arturo Bello-Pérez and José Alvarez-Ramírez) and 'Carbohydrate Nutrition' (2025, with Bin Zhang), and contributed chapters on topics like starch extraction and dietary fibres. His refereed publications in journals such as Food Hydrocolloids and Carbohydrate Polymers have garnered over 11,500 citations. Notable awards include the Jack Kefford Award from the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (2014, 2020), AB Blakeney Early Career Development Scholarship (2016), and AACC International Carbohydrate Division/Megazyme Award (third prize, 2013). Dhital serves as Editor for Carbohydrate Polymers, Editorial Board member for Food Hydrocolloids, and Chair of the Australasian Grain Science Association since 2022, advancing grain science knowledge and industry understanding.