Faculty
Bradley W. Bolling
Associate Professor, Food Science
Food chemistry and analysis, dietary phytochemicals, functional foods and prevention of chronic disease.
Audrey Girard
Assistant Professor, Food Science
Research interests: protein chemistry to improve food quality, sustainability, and nutrition; protein-polyphenol interactions.
Richard Hartel
Professor, Food Science | Joint with Biological Systems Engineering
Phase transitions (crystallization, glass transition, drying) in foods, with a focus on confectionery (chocolate, sugar candy, etc.) and dairy (ice cream) products.
Tu Anh Huynh
Assistant Professor, Food Science
Education BS with First Class Honors, Food Science, University of New South Wales (Australia) 2007 PhD with Emphasis in Biotechnology, University of California - Davis 2012 Postdoctoral Research: University of Washington Areas of study Research in my lab aims to understand the mechanisms of bacterial stress response, pathogenesis, and antibiotic resistance. We particularly focus on the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, which is the leading cause of foodborne illness mortality. Controlling Listeria growth in food and treating Listeria infection are highly challenging, due to the remarkable resilience of this bacterium under stress conditions, adaptability within the infected mammalian host, and emergence of antibiotic resistant strains. To tackle these challenges, we are investigating fundamental processes that are essential for Listeria growth and infection. Current projects in the lab address the following questions: i) The roles of nucleotide second messengers in Listeria stress response and host adaptation ii) The pathogenesis of Listeria in the gastrointestinal tract iii) Discovery of natural antimicrobials from the food and environmental microbiota
John A. Lucey
Professor, Food Science
Areas of Interest My lab often works with researchers at the Center for Dairy Research on a variety of dairy science and technology projects. Milk protein functionality, and the critical role for calcium phosphate crosslinking for casein properties, are part of our core expertise and themes underpinning various projects. Coagulation of milk by enzymes or acids are studied for their impacts on the rennet coagulation used in cheesemaking and the acid coagulation used in cultured products. Cheese texture, and their rheological properties, are studied for their ability to control cheese performance (e.g., melting, shredding). Extending the shelf-life of various types of cheeses is studied to aid in their export to distant markets. We are also interested in the stability of sterilized dairy beverages (both neutral pH and acidic drinks). Adding value to dairy coproducts through separation or fermentation is another area of interest.
Gulustan Ozturk
Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science, Dairy Innovation Hub (DIH) Faculty
Our research goal is to apply bio-guided processing to isolate bioactive compounds from milk or dairy streams and design and develop microbiome-centered therapeutic interventions with application in personalized nutrition and precision treatments to improve human health.
Jan Peter van Pijkeren
Associate Professor, Food Science
Research Interests: Gaining a better understanding how intestinal bacteria interact with their host; design and development of biotherapeutics to prevent or treat acute and chronic human diseases.
Scott A. Rankin
Professor and Chair, Food Science
Scott Rankin is a professor and chair at the University of Wisconsin's Food Science Department. His research focuses on the characterization of primarily dairy food flavor with sensory and instrumental techniques. With a majority Cooperative Extension appointment, he also offers numerous programs and short courses in support of the dairy foods processing industry.
Victor Ujor
Assistant Professor, Food Science
Research interests: Fermentation, renewable fuels and biochemicals, metabolic engineering/synthetic biology, bioprocess design, bioconversion of food wastes and agricultural residues to value-added products.