Office 367 Heritage Hall

Ph.D. Mississippi State University, 2003 • Major: Food Science and Technology, Minor: Biochemistry • Support Area: Food Microbiology and Safety/Food Processing

Teaching Interests: Food Microbiology, Advanced Food Microbiology, Food Quality, Food Preservation, Food Law, Experimental Foods, Food Biochemistry

Research Interests: 1. Rapid Detection and Enumeration of Foodborne Pathogens Development of easy-to-use and reliable assay kits for rapid detection and quantification of foodborne pathogens Development of resuscitation method of viable but non culturable (VBNC) Salmonella Novel design for rapid detection kits Rapid biochemical/biological separation through multi-phase culture techniques Screening of bio-markers on foodborne pathogens and their big data analysis Study of Listeria attachment on food contact surfaces for effective cleaning and sanitation 2. Food Processing, Quality and Preservation Non-thermal sterilization processing Shelf-life and quality enhancement of fresh and frozen food products Development of value-added food products 3. Functionality of Phytochemicals and their application Enhanced functionality of natural and processed polyphenol compounds

Professional Interests: My professional interests are study of biomarker expression on foodborne pathogens to develop the novel rapid assay kits and their field application/commercialization. I also love to work with undergraduate/graduate students for new product developments in food science and technology.