Dr. Brian Gibson is the new professor and head of the brewing and beverage technology department of the Berlin University of Technology. He succeeds Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank-Jürgen Methner, who headed the department from 2005 to 2019. The position is an endowed professorship that is co-financed by the Brewery Testing and Training Institute (VLB). VLB is an independent institute, which co-operates with Berlin University of Technology in the field of brewing science and has a very close network into the brewing and related industry.
Dr. Brian Gibson (43) has an international career as a fermentation scientist. Born in Ireland, he began studying plant sciences and mycology in 1995 at the University College Dublin School of Biology and Environmental Science in Dublin, Ireland, where he also completed his PhD in 2004. He then went to the Oxford Brookes University and to University of Nottingham, England, Division of Food Sciences, where he studied brewer's yeast and fermentation science. The next step in his career took him to the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland in 2009, where he was the scientific head of brewery research until 2020. From 2017 Gibson was also a lecturer at the University of Helsinki.
One focus of his work was in particular on brewer's yeast and its influence on fermentation and beer quality. Among other things, he dealt with the optimization of yeast cells by means of hybridization and adaptive evolution. His work resulted in various solutions that found their way into industrial practice. In addition, he also dealt with other fermented drinks and foods such as wine, cider, kombucha or sourdough. Dr. Gibson has contributed to around 60 peer-reviewed publications as an author and has supervised numerous PhD, MSc, and BSc research papers.
In his new role at TU Berlin, he aims to modernize teaching and particularly focus on innovations in beer and beverages. With his experience in the field of yeast and fermentation, he wants to complement the ongoing research in his field in the segments of raw materials, process optimization and beer quality.
VLB managing director Dr. Josef Fontaine: “We at VLB are very pleased that the chair for brewing and beverage technology at the TU Berlin has been filled with an internationally recognized brewing scientist and we are looking forward to a constructive collaboration with Dr. Brian Gibson.“
