Sarah Verkempinck is Assistant Professor in Plant-based Food Process Engineering at the Laboratory of Food Technology, KU Leuven. She obtained her PhD in Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven in 2018. Her doctoral research focused on the role of food microstructure, particularly oil-in-water emulsion properties, in lipid digestion kinetics and carotenoid bioaccessibility. Her current research focuses on process-structure-function relationships in plant-based food systems. She studies how processing affects the structural organisation of plant materials, with particular attention to cell wall polysaccharides, fibre-rich structures and their role in food functionality. This includes their role in interfacial functionality, emulsion stability, water binding and texture formation. A central aim of her work is to understand how plant-based materials, including fruits, vegetables, legumes and side streams, can be functionalised through targeted processing. By combining molecular, microstructural, and functional analyses, her research contributes to the rational design of plant-based foods and ingredients with tailored technological functionality.