Professor Alan Kelly is a graduate of Dublin City University (BSc Biotechnology 1990) and UCC (PhD Food Technology 1995).

His teaching responsibilities include food processing and preservation, dairy product technology and new food product development. He leads an active research group on the chemistry and processing of milk and dairy products and has published over 300 research papers, review articles and book chapters (Google Scholar h-index at August 2025 of 80) and supervised over 60 MSc and PhD students to completion.

He has also published several books including Molecules, microbes and meals: the surprising science of food (Oxford University Press, 2019), How scientists communicate: dispatches from the frontiers of science (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Agents of Change: Enzymes in Milk and Dairy Products (Co-edited with L.B. Larsen Springer Nature, 2021).

He referees for most leading international food journals and several international funding authorities (from 2021-2025 he chaired a panel of the European Research Council) and has acted as External Examiner in Universities in the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

In July 2009, he received the Danisco International Dairy Science award from the American Dairy Science Association for his contributions to research in dairy science and technology. He has also won awards in UCC for Excellence in Teaching (2004), Leadership (2011) and Research Communication (2020).

From 2006-2013, Professor Kelly was Dean of Graduate Studies of UCC and he is currently Head of the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at UCC, Vice-Head of the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science, and Co-director of the Futures Research Cluster on Food, the Microbiome and Health.

Professor Kelly's key research interests centre around the processing and preservation of food, and dairy products in particular. A primary interest concerns the fate and significance of milk proteins and enzymes through the dairy processing chain, from variability in raw milk (e.g., due to lactation and mastitis), through the impact of processing (e.g., heating, high-pressure, homogenisation) to final dairy product quality (especially cheese, liquid milk, infant formula, and other products).

A major emphasis of his research has concerned novel technologies, such as high pressure processing and novel emulsification technologies.

He has also studied the biochemistry of milk proteins and enzymes, especially proteases, for over 30 years. A significant focus of research concerns the biochemistry and enzymology of human milk, and also the technology and formulation aspects of infant formulae.

He collaborates widely with colleagues within UCC, in the Cork University Maternity Hospital and Teagasc, and internationally with colleagues and teams from the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

This research has led to around 300 publications, leading to over 12,000 citations, and around 60 supervised or co-supervised MSc and PhD theses.

Alan Kelly's teaching responsibilities include food processing and preservation, dairy product technology and new food product development, as well as scientific writing and communication for postgraduate students through module PG6001 (STEPS), which was the first module in UCC specifically designed for skills development by postgraduate research students.

He also lectures extensively through the Food Industry Training Unit at UCC, and is Academic Director of the Diploma in Speciality and Artisan Food Enterprises, and co-ordinates the university-wide module UW0002 Science in Society), which is attended by students right across UCC and members of the general public.