This area focuses on food ingredients, properties and interactions, as well as food microstructures, micro-carriers, and nanotechnology for developing novel, nutritious, abundant, and affordable foods.
Department Head and Professor
Food Chemistry: impact of environmental growing conditions, processing and storage on oilseed and fruit and vegetable quality and nutritional value, with emphasis on enzymatic action, lipids and natural antioxidants.
Professor Emeritus
Food and Biomass Microbiology: genetic and physiological manipulation of clostridia; plant cell wall deconstruction; fermentation.
Professor
Flavor Chemistry: chemistry and analysis of food flavor; development and application of instrumental and sensory methods of analysis; flavor development; physical chemistry of flavor systems.
Shelly SchmidtProfessor Food chemistry: characterization of water and solids mobility, typically using water activity, isotherms, glass transition temperature and NMR, in food materials and their relationship to the physical, chemical, and microbial stability of food systems. |
Professor
Porous media modeling of fluid and species transport in biomaterials; biopolymer thermomechanics; transport processes such as frying, drying and sorption; biopolymer expansion during extrusion; modeling at the nanoscale; continuum thermodynamics based fluid-biopolymer interactions; predicting quality changes in foods during processing.
Assistant Professor
Food Safety and Engineering: rapid diagnostic technologies for the detection of foodborne contaminants; novel active/intelligent packaging; engineering technologies for improving food safety and quality; chemical and physical interactions among functional materials, environmental factors, foodborne contaminants, and food and biological products.