Prof. Dr. Daniel Wefers

Daniel Wefers is Associate Professor for Food Chemistry at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He studied Food Chemistry at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and subsequently completed his PhD in Food Chemistry at KIT in 2016. After this, he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA. He then pursued his habilitation at KIT, which he completed in 2019, before moving to Halle to take up his current professorship. His research focuses on the structural characterization of complex carbohydrates, primarily derived from microbial and marine sources. Using advanced analytical approaches, his group elucidates fine structural features and investigates structure–function relationships of oligo- and polysaccharides in food systems. In addition, his research addresses carbohydrate-active enzymes as key tools for the targeted synthesis and modification of carbohydrates and explores their roles in fermentation processes. The overarching goal is to translate molecular-level insights into controlled functionality.