John C. Castura, Dr. Philos.
Research Fellow
John Castura holds the position of Research Fellow at Compusense Inc. His research interests include sensory method development and evaluation, including rapid and efficient sensory methods, temporal sensory methods, sensory discrimination testing, and sensometric applications. In December 2023, he successfully defended his Doctor Philosophiae (Dr.Philos.) thesis related to sensometrics (Norwegian University of Life Sciences). His academic background also includes a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in applied statistics (University of Guelph), a graduate certificate in applied statistics (Colorado State University), a specialized honours Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in zoology (University of Guelph), and an undergraduate certificate in computing and information systems (Athabasca University).
John developed a taste for sensory evaluation as a trained Scotch whisky panelist on a descriptive sensory panel. He now has more than 25 years’ experience in the field, and is an increasingly active contributor. He has more than 45 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He has given more than 100 presentations at scientific meetings, as well as invited talks, seminars, and tutorials.
John performs reviews for several peer-reviewed journals and serves on the Food Quality and Preference editorial board. He is an active member in several scientific and professional organizations. He chairs the Canadian mirror committee of ISO/TC 34/SC 12 Sensory Analysis and chairs the Sensory Claim Substantiation taskgroup of ASTM Committee E18 Sensory Evaluation. John is a statistician with PStat® accreditation from the American Statistical Association. Previously, he served as Chair (2016-2020) and Vice-Chair (2010-2014) of the Sensometric Society, as Chair of the Campden BRI (UK) Sensory & Consumer Member Interest Group, and as Member At Large on the Society of Sensory Professionals Executive Committee (2014-2016), all elected positions. He has also served on various scientific committees including Sensometrics and Pangborn conferences.