Professor Al-Assaf graduated in 1988 with a first class degree in Chemistry (Mosul University). He gained his MSc (1994) and PhD (1997) from Salford University in the field of radiation and solution properties of hyaluronan and cross linked form (Hylan). Subsequently he took up a postdoctoral research fellowship at Glyndwr University Wrexham (formally North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, NEWI) working on the characterisation and modification of hydrocolloids. In 2003 he became Director of the Phillips Hydrocolloids Research Centre at Glyndwr University and was promoted to a Reader in Chemistry in 2007, and was awarded a personal chair in 2012. He moved to Chester University in August 2015 to lead the Hydrocolloid Research Centre at the Institute of Food Science & Innovation. Professor Al-Assaf has secured research funding from various organisations and industry and has published over 100 papers. 

PhD (University of Salford, UK)
Technical Expert and consultant for the International Atomic Energy Agency

Associate Editor, Journal of Future Foods

Editor, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Editor, Food Chemistry Advances

Editor, Gels

Editor, International Journal of Food Science & Technology (2003 – 2018)
Life Member of the International Society for Hyaluronan Sciences