Padma Ishwarya, S. is presently an Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at the Polymer Engineering and Colloid Science Laboratory of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India. Before joining the IIT Madras, she was a SERB-National Postdoctoral Fellow at the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, India.

Padma's research focuses upon soft materials in foods, including foams, emulsions and gels. She is also well-versed in the areas of soluble coffee processing and quality aspects; valorization of food industry by-products and wastes to produce surfactants and emulsifiers; food structure and functionality; spray drying; spray-freeze-drying; encapsulation and bakery technology. She has more than 15 peer-reviewed publications in reputed International journals, 2 books, 8 book chapters and 2 popular articles, to her credit.

Padma is the recipient of several awards and fellowships in recognition of her distinguished academic record. To cite a few, in 2020, she won the 'Young Scientist Award' instituted by the Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) (AFST[I]). In 2021, her popular science article was selected for the 'AWSAR (Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research) Award' founded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. She serves as a Reviewer for the International Journal of Food Engineering, published by De Gruyter, Germany.

The Inception, Evolution and Theory of Spray-freeze-drying. Understanding the Nuances of Spray-freezing Process. Freeze-drying. Morphology of Spray-Freeze-Dried Products. Spray-freeze-drying of Dairy Products. Spray-freeze-drying for Soluble Coffee Production. Spray-freeze-drying for the Encapsulation of Food Ingredients and Biologicals. Spray-freeze-dried Particles as Novel Delivery Systems for Vaccines and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. Spray-freeze-drying for the Production of Therapeutic Nanoparticles. Properties of Spray-freeze-dried Products and their Characterization. Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Spray-freeze-drying Process. Spray-freeze-drying: Challenges and Solutions in the Way Forward.