Arno Wouters (born December 1990) is associate professor (as of October 2025) in Food Chemistry at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry (LFCB) at KU Leuven, Belgium. He graduated as a bioscience engineer, with a specialization in food science, at KU Leuven in 2013. He conducted his doctoral and postdoctoral research under supervision of prof. Jan Delcour at KU Leuven between 2013 and 2019. In October 2019, Arno was appointed assistant professor in Food Chemistry and from 2022 onwards, he was appointed visiting professor at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Over the years, he undertook research stays at the University of Leeds (2016), University of Guelph (2018) and Université Le Mans (2022).
On a research level, Arno is particularly interested in further exploiting the potential of various plant protein sources for structuring food. To achieve a partial transition from animal towards plant protein sources in the global food system in years to come, establishing in-depth structure-function relationships on various plant-based protein materials as well as developing novel strategies for improving plant protein functionality are necessary. Areas in which Arno has developed an expertise are (i) the chemistry and colloidal properties of plant, and particularly cereal, proteins and (ii) their use as structuring agents in various dispersed food systems, such as food foams. As of June 2025, Arno has published around 60 peer-reviewed papers, and co-authored >60 conference presentations.