Maurice Essers attended the Joan of Arc lyceum in the Netherlands and to which he afterwards studied chemistry at the technical university of Aachen (RWTH). His master thesis was about “Synthesis of UV curing polymers by living radical polymerization”  and carried out under supervision of prof. Dr. Hartwig Hoecker (DWI, Aachen). In 1996 he started his professional career at the research and development centre of the South African Paper and Pulp industry in Maastricht (NL)were he started to investigate interaction of hydrocolloids in coatings systems and how these affect the final printability of the paper. In 2000, he joined Cargill and was employed in several global R&D laboratories, e.g. Bergen op Zoom (NL), Cedar Rapids (USA) and Krefeld (Germany). His research activities during this period were focussed on the development and implementation of novel modified industrial starches. He continued his research in 2004 at the R&D facility of Tate and Lyle in Aalst (Be). During this time his research involved both the development of new industrial starches ass well novel food starches, e.g. development of a novel process for thermochemical oxidation of starches and spray cooked starches for food application. Since 2009, mr. Essers is employed by TNO in the department “functional Ingredients”. This department merged in 2018 with Wageningen Food and biobased research. In his current position mr. Essers is responsible as a project manager and senior scientist for the development of clean label modified food starches, healthy carbohydrates and green processes for carbohydrate modification. In this field mr. Essers is prime inventor of 10 patents, e.g. thermally inhibited starches, resistant starch, novel dietary fiber, SHS treated wheat bran etc, new process for making fast cooking rice, thermally inhibited starch etc.

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