Given this versatility, MRI can be used not only for direct studies of intact food -systems or -processes, but indirectly via validation of simulation software.

This talk will include a set of representative examples including:

• Microwave and convective heating of foods.
• Measurement and modelling of flow velocity and temperature in a cylindrical heat exchanger.
• Quantitation of pickling by immersion in vinegar.

Examples of all the work of the HSLMC, including the above, are available at: http://www.hslmc.cam.ac.uk

Professor Laurance Hall is the first holder (1984) of the Herchel Smith Chair of Medicinal Chemistry in Cambridge University. Originally trained to be a Carbohydrate Chemist, at The University of Bristol (UK), he helped pioneer the use of NMR spectroscopy to determine the structure and solution conformations of carbohydrates. From 1963-1984 he was in the Chemistry Department of The University of British Columbia where he did research into various chemical aspects of NMR spectroscopy and of organic synthesis. In 1980 he built the first NMR microscope in Canada, in 1982 the first MRI scanner and in 1983 installed the first clinical MRI scanner. He is the author of more than 500 research publications.

Since its inception in 1984, the Herchel Smith Laboratory for Medicinal Chemistry has specialised in many aspects of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) ranging from the development of the scanners themselves, optimised designs for radiofrequency probes and gradients coils and implementation of novel scan sequences. Importantly too, all the software used for image-processing, display and measurement has been developed in-house; based on the Linux operating system, this enables automated image-guided scanning and objective measurement of scans.