FDBusiness.com

SABMiller has appointed Professor Katherine Smart (pictured) as group chief brewer to replace Professor Barry Axcell, who is retiring at the end of July 2012 after almost 35 years of service with the company. Katherine Smart, who is the current SABMiller Professor of Brewing Science and the Head of the School of Biosciencesat the Universityof Nottingham, will take up here new position on June 1st 2012.

Katherine Smart, a well-respected academic, has held this post for seven years and founded Brewing Science at the University offering research programs in malting, yeast genomics, fermentation and flavour. Barry Axcell and Katherine also developed the MSc in Brewing Science.

Katherine Smart has presented to the UK Houses of Parliament, is a scientific advisor to several global companies and has edited a number of books on Brewing Yeast. She has been awarded several awards for research including the Institute of Brewing and Distilling Cambridge Prize. She previously held the appointment of post-Doctoral research fellow at the University of Cambridge.