Forensic scientist from Delhi grabs spot in world's top ‘50 Next’

NEW DELHI:  A Delhi-based forensic scientist, Dr Risha Jasmine Nathan has been named among the world’s top 50 leading gastronomy game-changers in a prestigious list celebrating the next generation of leaders creating sustainable solutions for the global food and drink industry. 

Risha joined the group of innovators selected from more than 400 candidates across 30 territories as the next-gen leaders of gastronomy. “My research, which I completed in New Zealand in 2020, was about using food and vegetable peels and converting them into beads that could suck up heavy metals from drinking water,” said Dr Nathan.

The research was a part of the “Science Innovators” category which gave a sustainable solution to tackle the problem of water contamination in the developing world. “My goal is to make use of the science of toxicology to work towards the creation of a safer and healthier world,” she said. Nathan, who will soon be a lecturer at the Anglia Ruskin University in the UK later this year, is researching more on the topic, hoping to change the lives of millions who still don’t have access to clean water.

Her technique of removing contaminants such as heavy metals from water has been recognised as a game-changer method in recent times. According to her, while working as an assistant professor of forensic science at Galgotias University in Uttar Pradesh, she came across a technique called ‘biosorption’, where agricultural waste products are used to remove metals from wastewater. From there she got the idea that fruit and vegetable peels could be turned into ‘green filters’ to clean drinking water. “The idea provides viable drinking water decontamination method, is cost efficient and solves problem of landfill dumping, as it helps recycle tonnes of peel waste that end up in landfills every year, causing land pollution and generating methane gas,” she added.

Along with Risha, three other Indian innovators were also mentioned in the list, unveiled at a first-ever live awards ceremony in the Spanish city of Bilbao on Thursday. They were Bengaluru-based Vinesh Johny and Anusha Murthy, Mumbai-based Nidhi Pant and Singapore-born Indian-origin food entrepreneur Travinder Singh. The ‘50 Next’ is a list released every year which celebrates people from across the food and drink department to complement the annual rankings of ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’.