FBNS Digest 2023

Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences DIGEST 2023 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Expanding Opportunities for Students 4 Lee-Ann Jaykus: Build a Good Team, and Great Science Will Follow 7 Anna Gessner: Wide-Open Opportunities 7 Locals Seafood Partners with FBNS Class on New Product Launch 8 A Family Affair at FBNS 10 Sophia Kathariou: Expanding Opportunities for Students 13 Peanuts May Pack a Punch for Women’s Health 13 Nutrition Scientist Bolsters Support for Breastfeeding 14 FBNS Celebrates Klaenhammer Legacy 15 Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Milk: The Science Behind the Flavors We Love 15 How Dairy Drinks Help Fuel Athletes 16 Students Churn Out Dairy Creations from Farm to Table 17 Speeding Up the Aging Process for Spirits 17 Building a Better Forest Tree with CRISPR Gene Editing 18 FBNS in the News 20 Department Notes Faculty/Staff Awards and Honors, Alumni Awards, New Hire, Retirement 21 CASE Institute Workshop 21 Sarah Ash: Giving Back to Her Pack 22 FBNS Scholarship Award Winners 23 Recruitment Activities

UPCOMING EVENTS 2023 Fall Commencement Dec 16 2024 Spring Commencement May 4 Faculty and Staff Retreat May 9 FBNS Breakfast at Annual IFT Meeting July 15 Learn more at fbns.ncsu.edu 2

Expanding Opportunities for Students Providing the best learning opportunities for our students is foremost in our minds. It’s essential as we continue to recruit undergraduates in food science, bioprocessing science and nutrition science, and graduate students in food science and nutrition. We’re focused on teaching effectively in the classroom and online, providing practical knowledge in the lab, facilitating hands-on experience in pilot plants, and offering other experiential learning opportunities by engaging with our community.

These student opportunities are available at all four of our locations: the Plants for Human Health Institute at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City, Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery in Raleigh, and Schaub Hall on the main campus of NC State. We plan to host the 2024 annual retreat at our dairy farm, following annual retreats at Schaub Hall, Kannapolis and Morehead City, respectively.

FBNS continues to expand course offerings and programs, improve our facilities, and recruit outstanding faculty and staff. We foster our students’ participation in professional development that builds leadership skills. We can’t do this alone.

To succeed, we need our alumni and industry partners. I invite each of you to offer your support in whatever way possible — give guest lectures, speak to our student clubs, mentor our students, establish scholarships, provide internships, support research projects or join our Industry Partners Advisory Council (IPAC). We would welcome your help in improving our facilities or creating an endowment to support an area you are passionate about.

Your leadership and partnership can enhance the opportunities for our students.

Your example inspires them to emulate your accomplishments in private industry, government and nonprofit organizations, and academia. Please let me know how we can be of better service to you in your professional endeavors.

Together, we can create a stronger partnership and amplify our success.

The strength of our department lies in our people. I am extremely thankful to our vibrant student body and exceptional staff, faculty, emeritus faculty, retirees, alumni and industry partners. I appreciate the support you have offered and look forward to working with you in the future as we create better opportunities for our students.

K.P. Sandeep Department Head

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FBNS Fall 2022 Graduates

CONGRATULATIONS, GRADUATES! FBNS Spring 2023 Graduates

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FACULTY PROFILE

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Lee-Ann Jaykus

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Build a Good Team, and Great Science Will Follow 29 years with FBNS, $45 million in research awards, dramatically impacting research on foodborne illness, and mentoring the next generation

By Alice Manning Touchette It’s the mid-1980s and food scientist Lee-Ann Jaykus gets curious.

She’s recently transitioned from working with Frito Lay in food quality assurance to run the microbiology program for a dairy and food analysis lab in Modesto, California. The field of food science is changing dramatically and she wants to know how it connects to other disciplines.

In 2011, Jaykus would soon become the scientific director of NoroCORE, an international, collaborative project that lasted seven years. Funded by a $24.8 million grant from United States Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture, it remains one of the two largest grants ever issued by the USDA-NIFA in support of food safety work.

“I asked myself, Where is the field going?” Jaykus says. “I thought epidemiology, risk assessment, maybe viruses and certainly molecular technologies. And I realized that though I was trained in food science with degrees from Purdue, I needed to study public health. I needed to learn more.”

“It was a massive project. Our collaborative of scientists came from over 15 other institutions and more than 100 stakeholders representing more than 50 public and private entities,” Jaykus says.

“We studied everything from food production and processing to epidemiology to basic science, basic molecular virology, and so much more. It was so much fun.”

With that, Jaykus started a new chapter of her research career.

She moved her young family across the country to North Carolina where she earned a Ph.D. in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel HIll. One of her dissertation committee members was food microbiologist and NC State FBNS faculty member Peggy Foegeding.

“It was serendipitous. Peggy not only reviewed my dissertation, but also encouraged me to apply for a position in Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at NC State,” Jaykus says. “One day I was driving to Chapel Hill. The next day I drove to Raleigh.”

The Big One When Jaykus joined FBNS in 1994 as a professor and researcher, no one was seriously studying food and viruses. Following research in 1999 that showed viruses were the leading cause of foodborne disease, Jaykus became one of two scientists in the United States to study food virology.

“That 1999 research paper completely changed my life,” Jaykus says. “Because of my public health background, I knew about disease transmission and epidemiology, and my research program with FBNS included lab-based research on bacteria and viruses.

I was in a unique position to help bridge food microbiology, food science and disease transmission.”

The collaborative research paid off. The NoroCORE team discovered that norovirus is the leading cause of food-associated disease. In the process, a part of the team out of Baylor learned how to cultivate norovirus in the lab so that they could better study it.

“That was huge in the field,” Jaykus says. “We learned a lot more about the epidemiology of foodborne viruses through our CDC colleagues on the project and developed strategies to improve detection of the viruses and how to inactivate the viruses.”

In addition, they established a reagent exchange among the members of the collaborative to expand the research beyond virology to agriculture, food, hygiene, and prevention and control sectors.

“With a large grant, you can make some creative contributions.

The reagent exchange was huge. And we were able to fund a social media awareness campaign with public service messages about virus transmission and prevention,” Jaykus says.

Planting Seeds in a Garden You Will Never See Bloom Jaykus’ research was prolific. In all she brought in more than $45 million in grants during her 29 years with FBNS. Though the research is her pride, her joy was working with students.

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“The science was great, but I loved building teams with students,” Jaykus says. “If you have a class of 50, you're never going to reach all of them, but there are always one or two where you kind of light a fire under them, help them in their career trajectories, and help them make decisions on what they want to work in and how they want to do that.”

Those teams, and how she built them, impacted her students and how they approached collaborative work.

“Lee-Ann taught me the importance of bringing in a great group of people and fostering a great lab environment—she showed that if you bring in great people, great science is likely to follow,” says Matthew D. Moore, a former student who’s now an assistant professor at University of Massachusetts. “The amazing people Lee-Ann was purposeful in choosing that I got to work with also left an indelible impression on me and has guided how I try to run our lab at UMass.”

“Lee-Ann is truly one-of-a-kind and has been a hero to me both in terms of science and life. Lee-Ann demonstrated the importance of not just being a great scientist but also being a great person. My mother was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer about a year into my Ph.D. with Lee-Ann, and there were a number of times I was close to quitting the program. Without the support, compassion and understanding Lee-Ann showed me, I am not sure I would even be in science or have a Ph.D. right now.”

Jaykus’ leadership and mentorship made a lasting impression on her students.

“I will always be grateful to Dr. Jaykus. Not only for her scientific advisement as a graduate student, but for those many helpful conversations spent in her office covering life’s lessons. She taught me the importance of trusting the process in both my personal and professional life, while keeping motives pure,” says Lynette Johnston, an assistant professor in FBNS who earned her Ph.D. under Jaykus.

Jaykus recalls fondly what became known as “the crying table” in her office. Small, round and accompanied by a couple of chairs, the crying table became a sacred, safe place for students who came to Jaykus for her guidance.

“Every single graduate student I ever had, male or female, cried at that table,” Jaykus says. “In most instances, it had nothing to do with their work and everything to do about life. Breakups, deaths, unexpected pregnancies, you name it. It was rewarding and humbling 6

that they were willing to share their lives with me. I still have a deep connection to this day with almost all of my graduate students.”

Among those students was Kelly Stevens, a food safety manager for General Mills. “Lee-Ann had a lasting impact on my education and career. She was an incredible academic adviser who turned into a professional confidant and friend. I am incredibly grateful to have her in my life.”

Research scientist Efi Papafragkou with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, remembers her doctoral studies with Jaykus with warmth. “Joining Lee-Ann’s group was truly a unique experience.

She has been tremendously supportive throughout the years and generously offered her advice and insightful guidance whenever I asked for it.”

In all, Jaykus mentored some 60 graduate students through master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral work. In recognition of her dedication to teaching and research, NC State awarded her the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence and named her a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor.

“Working with those kids was incredibly rewarding. The most important thing I did was be there for these kids and help them in all aspects of their life,” Jaykus says. “There’s a beautiful line in the musical Hamilton that says, ‘Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden that you will never get to see.’”

The Next Adventure Newly retired, Jaykus plans to stay in the game as a consultant.

She was recently appointed to a World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations panel on viruses, food and risk assessment. In addition, she is consulting with other food safety organizations and her professional association.

“I’m definitely a 10-year plan person, so I’m excited to stay active in the field for a while,” Jaykus says. “I’m an applied scientist.

I want to make research relevant to industry stakeholders who can use it and make their practices better. I want students to remain a part of that process so they are exposed to both the research and the needs of the stakeholders. One of the wonderful things about working with NC State is that the model is there in the land-grant mission. It’s really, really important to have that mindset and a seamless approach to research, teaching and application through extension.”

Anna Gessner STUDENTS

4/25/23:

Anna Gessner: Wide-Open Opportunities Graduating senior Anna Gessner teamed up to Feed the Pack and prepared herself for a health care career while studying nutrition science. https://go.ncsu.edu/ gessner-nutrition-science

8/23/23:

Locals Seafood Partners with FBNS Class on New Product Launch An alumni-owned company was excited to collaborate with Clint Stevenson and his graduate students on a food safety plan for their new frozen meal. https://go.ncsu.edu/class-seafoodpartnership

Locals Seafood is first launching a ready-to-cook frozen meal with summer flounder and a garlic herb butter

Stephanie Cotter, Greg Bolton, Clint Stevenson and Alexander Chouljenko (left to right) from the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences holding Locals Seafood's new frozen meal

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A Family Affair at FBNS Meet Beth, Karl, Ruth and Michele, four long-time staff members with a collective 143 years with FBNS.

Beth King Administrative Support Specialist Years of service: 39 How has the department changed?

When I first came to work at Food Science in 1984, each office suite of five professors had one administrative assistant, formerly referred to as secretaries. We had to type up all of their manuscripts, publications and reports on the old “huge” IBM computers that used floppy disks.

We had to type up travel reimbursements, envelopes and labels, all on typewriters. We also helped the graduate students with their posters, typed up their plans of work and whatever else they needed.

I’ve been lucky enough to stay in this department and have moved from one office to the other, and am currently in the main office working under Dr. Sandeep, the department head.

Why have you stayed with FBNS? It's always felt like a family unit from day one. Everybody’s always gotten along. The faculty, staff and students are all great to work with. We work together as a team. You never feel like you have a problem talking to each other if you need help. We've had a lot of students come through here that are now faculty. It speaks to who we are.

Any interesting or memorable things you'd like to highlight?

We have a good time; it's not just all work here. We do a lot of social activities to make sure that everybody feels welcome and works together as one. The most memorable highlight would be the pie throwing event at the Halloween spaghetti lunch that the social and rec committee would host every year. Karl Hedrick would usually be the target and boy would everyone line up to purchase a pie to be the one to get him!

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Karl Hedrick Research Operations ManagerandBuildingLiaison Years of service: 34 How has the department changed?

I used to be the youngest one working here. Now I'm one of the oldest ones.

I started out working in what was then just the dairy processing center. Now you know it better as Howling Cow. In my job now, the biggest part of my day is to keep the building flow going. If there are building issues as far as utilities or outages, or we need to make changes in a lab, I'm there. If our lab personnel have a problem, then they'll call and I'll go up and see if I can help out. My job is to answer the call when there’s a problem and help with things that need to be done.

I've enjoyed the renovations we’ve completed through the years where we’ve converted space into what we think is better usable space for our programs and our students. That's a source of pride.

I think we've done some good renovations that have helped the students and faculty do their work.

Why have you stayed with FBNS? It's always been a family atmosphere. Great people to work with, faculty and staff through the years and the students. It's always been a forward-thinking department, which I appreciate.

Staff are recognized for their work. Staff are part of the process.

Any interesting or memorable things you'd like to highlight?

One memorable thing is that "back in the day" FBNS had a faculty, staff and student softball team that played other teams on campus.

We had some really good players for several years, won a lot of games and had lots of fun!

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Ruth Watkins

Michele Yates

Laboratory Research Specialist Years of service: 34

Sensory Analyst Years of service: 36

How has the department changed?

How has the department changed?

One of the big changes is computers.

When I first came in 1989, nothing existed in terms of email. We used to see a lot more face-to-face interactions, and if a memo would go around, there was a blue slip with everybody's name on it and you would physically pass it from person to person.

How we do our day-to-day jobs in the lab and with data collection is now controlled by computers.

Why have you stayed with FBNS? One of the enjoyable things is getting to meet the students, whether they're from North Carolina, or around the U.S. and the globe.

Getting to work with people from all over the place and showing them how to do different tests, how to use this piece of equipment, keeps it interesting.

Any interesting or memorable things you'd like to highlight?

One thing that I think the department does really well is we've got a social and rec committee and we try to get people to come out a couple of times a year and just socialize. I think it makes for a more enjoyable workplace to know people's names and what they do and that kind of thing.

The Food Science Club has been huge, and all the majors are welcome. You just have to have an interest. They drive some of the social events as well, being a very active group. They compete at the national level for various events like product development. Getting to work with the students in a nonacademic setting is fun, too.

And the ice cream is great.

Until 2001, I was the only person dedicated to sensory work in the department.

When I came in 1985 as a graduate student, I was very interested in sensory evaluation. So I trained and became a panel leader to the department’s contract panel; we detect descriptors that are in a food.

For example, if you're evaluating peanut butter, you would have roast peanut flavor, under-roasted and over-roasted notes or burnt notes.

There might be stale cardboardy or rancid notes, sour depending on the peanut cultivar, and salty, bitter or sweet basic tastes. What a trained sensory panelist does is learn how to identify these different characteristics and define them in a way that everyone on the panel looks at them in the same way. Then you apply a universal intensity scale that goes from low to high, and you calibrate on this scale to rate the intensity of each attribute, resulting in a product profile.

In 2001 I became part of a lab working on flavor chemistry, dairy processing and sensory analysis. The sensory analysis component includes a lot of consumer testing, but it also includes descriptive analysis, which is my specialty area. I have continued with the contract panel and also work with graduate students in the lab to get them trained on how to do this. It’s very fast-paced, and I get to work with a broad range of companies and people.

Why have you stayed with FBNS? I love working with my contract panel. There’s a lot of camaraderie and we enjoy working with each other. People in the department and especially the lab I work in all really help each other, especially if they know you’re in a time of need.

Any interesting or memorable things you'd like to highlight?

We used to have fun Halloween and Christmas parties; everyone was involved and I do miss those. But we still have cookouts and faculty and staff birthday recognitions to build community. We really are a family.

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FACULTY PROFILE

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Sophia Kathariou

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Expanding Opportunities for Students Retiring Professor Sophia Kathariou on land, labs and a lifetime looking at Listeria

By Alice Manning Touchette As a child in a small village near Corinth, Greece, Sophia Kathariou grew up among the grapes, apricots, and pears of her parents’ small-scale farm. After 23 years with FBNS and four decades advancing bacterial research on Listeria, Campylobacter and their roles in foodborne illness, Kathariou looks forward to trading the lab for the outdoors.

“I inherited a deep affection for land from my parents, and I am still the happiest when I deal with soil and plants. Retirement for me means more time in “I inherited a deep affection for land from my parents, and I am still nature, connecting with myself, the happiest when I deal with soil and plants,” Kathariou says.

“Retirement for me means more time in nature, connecting with family and friends.” myself, family and friends.”

Professor Sophia Kathariou

The Road to Listeria Kathariou left Greece at age 17 to study biology at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, the first stop on a long academic career. For her doctoral program at the University of California, Berkeley, she focused on genetics and the population biology of fungi. This led to postdoctoral work with bacteria at Cornell University. She returned to Europe to join a bacterial pathogenesis lab led by Werner Goebel at the University of Würzburg in Germany, where she became fascinated with Listeria research.

“I started my work with the foodborne pathogen Listeria in the mid-1980s, and I studied it all the way until I retired,” Kathariou says. “I worked with some amazing Listeria experts in Germany: Herbert Hof, Juergen Kreft and Heinz Seeliger.”

Listeria is found in raw foods, uncooked meats, soil and water. If Listeria makes its way into food processing plants or water systems, it can linger for years and may cause a rare, but potentially deadly illness. Although many people are infected with Listeria, they rarely become seriously ill beyond gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1,600 people per year become ill with listeriosis (caused by Listeria) and about 260 of those infected people die.

Listeriosis is most dangerous for pregnant women, newborns, adults over 65 and people with weakened immune systems.

After working for three years in Germany as a research associate in the Department of Microbiology and Genetics, Kathariou was invited to join a CDC lab focused on Listeria.

“As a visiting scientist, I worked with a wonderful mentor, Leo Pine, until my first faculty position at the University of HawaiiManoa on the island of Oahu, where I was from 1990 to 2000,” Kathariou says. “I taught microbial genetics and general microbiology, and had an awesome group of students, several of whom I am still in touch with.”

While at the University of Hawaii, she added another research target, the foodborne bacterium Campylobacter, transmitted primarily through poultry and other animal products. “I worked there with a strong group at the State Health Lab, led by Becky Kanenaka and left in September 2000 to join FBNS.” Reducing Foodborne Illness At NC State, Kathariou’s main research focus became finding how Listeria contaminates food processing plants. The goal: reduce the incidence of listeriosis and economic losses of food recalls.

“Our lab was the first to identify that Listeria acquired complex genetic elements that allow it to simultaneously resist heavy metals like cadmium, sanitizers and toxic dyes,” Kathariou says.

“Getting to elucidate some of the adaptations of Listeria to life in the food processing facilities was a big accomplishment.”

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Her research on Campylobacter revealed that it causes more human infections than Listeria.

Campylobacteriosis triggers acute gastroenteritis and is the most common cause, though rare, of Guillain-Barré syndrome — which may lead to neuromuscular paralysis and sometimes lifelong disabilities.

“Our lab worked to further understand how Campylobacter colonizes food animals, especially turkeys, and resists antibiotics,” Kathariou explains. “This bacterium has remarkable capacity to get into turkey farms, colonize the birds and tolerate all kinds of drugs. Our work was focused on reducing the public health burden by developing a set of interventions to prevent colonization of the birds.”

Lab Mentorship Throughout her tenure with FBNS, Kathariou mentored dozens of students in her lab and in her classes.

Driss Elhanafi, a senior scientist in the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, came to know Kathariou while working as a postdoctoral fellow in food science.

“Through very close interaction with Sophia and her lab team, and after getting a very clear idea about the exciting projects they were working on, I decided to join Sophia's lab,” Elhanafi says. “Sophia has a real impact on my personal and professional life. She is one of the rare scientists who dedicate their lives to advancing science for human interest and not for better financial profits.”

Elhanafi bases his mentorship of students on Kathariou’s example.

“Sophia showed me that understanding, empowering and motivating students are key values a principal investigator should have to be successful,” he says. “I honestly consider Sophia as a best friend.”

For Kathariou, the work with students is something she will carry with her into retirement.

“From all my years with FBNS, beyond the research and discoveries with drug resistance, my most fond memories will be of the wonderful partnerships with students and collaborators,” she says.

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WOMEN'S HEALTH

3/22/23:

Peanuts May Pack a Punch for Women’s Health Ondulla Toomer’s research shows that hot flashes, mood swings and sleep issues related to the onset of menopause may have a new source of relief: peanuts. https://go.ncsu.edu/peanutswomens-health

Ondulla Toomer, research chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service (USDAARS) and FBNS faculty member

8/31/23:

Nutrition Scientist Bolsters Support for Breastfeeding April Fogleman nourishes North Carolina in more ways than one. She creates support groups for moms, trains health professionals about the basics of breastfeeding and teaches students about infant nutrition. https://go.ncsu.edu/nutritionscientist-breastfeeding-support

Fogleman (left) with Nicola Singletary presenting some of their research about best practices in teaching infant nutrition. In her role at NC State, Fogleman complements her Extension efforts with research and teaching.

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FBNS Celebrates Klaenhammer Legacy' On Aug. 7, FBNS celebrated the extraordinary life and career of Todd R. Klaenhammer, a pioneer in probiotics and a beloved colleague, professor and friend. During a stellar career, he pioneered advances in bacteriocins, phage resistance, lactic acid bacteria genomics and probiotics commercialization. He also provided outstanding leadership to the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center in addition to being a faculty member in the Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences department for 40 years. His powerful legacy remains in the hundreds of students he taught and mentored.

FBNS folks, distinguished alumni, colleagues and industry collaborators gathered on campus for a Klaenhammer Symposium. Speakers from NC State, across the country and overseas gave us a glimpse of the extraordinary and lasting impact he had on his students, colleagues and industry partners. It was an honor to celebrate the occasion with his wife, Amy Klaenhammer, and daughter, Ellen Klaenhammer.

Todd R. Klaenhammer, 1951–2021

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DAIRY

8/7/23:

Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Milk: The Science Behind the Flavors We Love MaryAnne Drake leads the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center as a preeminent expert on sensory analysis for the industry. https://go.ncsu.edu/cheese-chocmilk-science

6/20/23:

How Dairy Drinks Help Fuel Athletes Nutrition expert Jon Allen says, when it’s time for a post-workout drink, trade that gator for a cow. A Howling Cow. https://go.ncsu.edu/dairy-drinks-athletes

Cheese plates at the National Dairy Council’s annual Farmer Board of Directors meeting hosted by NC State’s Southeast Dairy Food Research Center, February 2023.

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5/31/23:

Students Churn Out Dairy Creations From Farm to Table More than 40 undergraduate and graduate students work for NC State's Dairy Enterprise System, which operates the Howling Cow brand and everything needed to make dairy delights. https://go.ncsu.edu/howling-cow-students

At the Dairy Education Center and Creamery, Jordan Stanley serves customers ice cream cones, sundaes and milkshakes.

Caroline Vande Berg’s responsibilities at the Dairy Research and Teaching Farm include milking and feeding cattle.

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Speeding Up the Aging Process for Spirits FACULTY

NC State’s Terri Long, Marvin Moncada and Kenny Sherin are creating life- and industry-altering change. https://go.ncsu.edu/changemakers-moncada

Marvin Moncada creates industry-altering change by aging liquor at breakneck speed.

7/13/23:

Building a Better Forest Tree with CRISPR Gene Editing Researchers Rodolphe Barrangou and Jack Wang reduce lignin levels and improve wood properties in poplar trees using the increasingly popular gene-editing system https://go.ncsu.edu/crispr-forest-tree

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FBNS IN THE NEWS

FBNS Creates Industry Partners Advisory Council

The FBNS Industry Partners Advisory Council (IPAC) held its inaugural meeting on April 20. IPAC members were also invited to attend the Annual FBNS Awards Banquet on April 19. Subsequent meetings were held on July 17 in Chicago in conjunction with the FBNS Networking Breakfast at the Annual Institute of Food Technologists meeting and on Sept. 27 in Raleigh.

2023 FBNS scholarship award winners at the Awards Banquet

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The IPAC framework enables our member companies to work with students on projects, mentor them, provide guest lectures for various classes, and hire our students for internships and full-time positions. It also gives them early access to cutting-edge research, allows them to collaborate with us to tackle technical problems and serves as a means of peer-to-peer networking. We welcome our alumni and other industry professionals to join IPAC as we grow this mutually beneficial partnership.

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Annual FBNS Awards Banquet, April 19, 2023

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Awards and Honors Mary Ann Lila, Murdock Distinguished Professor and director of the Plants for Human Health Institute, was named the senior faculty recipient of NC State’s Outstanding Global Engagement Award.

Assistant Professor Natalie Cooke (Outstanding Teacher Award) and Professor Keith Harris (CALS nominee for the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching) were recognized at the University Teaching Awards ceremony.

Professor Rodolphe Barrangou was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his inventions, creativity, and spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Assistant Professor Deepti Salvi was selected as a Goodnight Early Career Innovator at NC State.

Research Professor Josip Simunovic received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Engineering and Food.

Alumni Awards Jennifer McMillen Doctorate in nutrition science, 2015 Alumna Jennifer McMillen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and general science education from Marshall University and received her master’s degree in nutrition science from Meredith College. She earned a doctoral degree in nutrition science Jennifer McMillen from NC State in 2015. She returned to Meredith College as a teaching faculty member and obtained tenure in 2020. McMillen is currently an assistant professor teaching primarily graduate-level courses in nutrition science. She currently chairs the Department of Nutrition, Health and Human Performance and serves as the faculty coordinator for the Dickson Foundation Community Garden. Her teaching focus includes graduate-level research methods, sustainable food systems, cultural food practices and life cycle nutrition. Her research and interests 20

include garden education, intuitive eating in college students, scholarship of teaching, learning using reflection to improve student engagement and learning outcomes, nutrition education curriculum development, and mixed methods research focused on one-on-one and group interviews, cognitive interviews and survey development and validation. McMillen seeks collaboration and intellectual curiosity in all she does, bringing these ideals to her research, teaching and administrative tasks.

Aaron Anders Bachelor’s in bioprocessing, 2012 Master’s in biomanufacturing, 2018 Alumnus Aaron Anders is a North Carolina native and product of the Davidson County School system. He enrolled at NC State University in 2006 in the Agricultural Institute and ultimately transferred to FBNS where he pursued a bachelor's degree in bioprocessing science and a minor in biomanufacturing at BTEC. During his undergraduate experience, Anders was trained as an undergraduate tutor to assist students in chemistry, organic chemistry, calculus and physics.

He served as a supplemental instructor for Chem 101 classes and fulfilled the University Scholars Program requirements.

In addition, he completed an undergraduate research project Aaron Anders in food chemistry that won an award for outstanding academic research. He graduated from FBNS in 2012 and started his career at Merck as a process engineer.

Anders began work at KBI Biopharma Inc. in 2014 as an upstream manufacturing associate II, continuing to progress in different upstream manufacturing roles including engineer, shift supervisor, senior manufacturing specialist and senior manufacturing manager.

During his time as a shift supervisor, Anders went back to NC State and earned a master’s degree in 2018 in biomanufacturing from BTEC. Anders currently serves as associate director of upstream manufacturing at KBI Biopharma.

FBNS alumnus Qixin Zhong, Ph.D., was elected as an Institute of Food Technologists Fellow.

New Hire Minliang Yang, an assistant professor in food sustainability, recently joined the department to develop sustainable solutions for the global food system.

She’s using analysis tools to create strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in food and bioprocessing while creating healthier and more sustainable food. https://go.ncsu.edu/yangMinliang Yang food-sustainability

Retirement Professor John Sheppard embarked on his three-year phased retirement program (50% time commitment) on July 1. He will be predominantly working on his NC State responsibilities during the spring semester.

CASE Institute Workshop Instead of grading papers, 19 middle and high school teachers learned to grade eggs. Agriculture and science teachers also tested maple syrup and measured the specific gravity of milk in FBNS labs in Schaub Hall. The training will help teachers bring food science into their classrooms. They took home plenty of ideas and teaching materials from the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) Institute.

Teachers came from North Carolina school districts, including Wake, Johnston and Forsyth counties, and from as far as the West Coast.

Sarah Ash: Giving Back to Her Pack There is often a story or a personal connection behind the gifts Sarah Ash, FBNS professor emerita, has given to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and North Carolina State University over the years.

An endowed professorship in honor of her parents; a scholarship named for a woman who lived nearly 100 years ago; and support for study abroad that recognizes how powerful that experience can be for students from rural counties and all students in general – Ash can clearly define the reasons for her gifts.

“I became a university professor because education matters,” she said. “If you think in those terms, as you think about where to donate – if education matters, maybe it’s not hard to think about giving back to the university.”

CASE Institute Workshop

As she continues to give her time and her support to CALS and to the university, Ash encourages others to think about what matters to them. Contributions don’t have to be large to make a difference. https://go.ncsu.edu/ash-fbns-giving/ 21

FBNS Scholarship Award Winners Benjamin P. Forbes Scholarship Molly Bennett Benjamin W. Kilgore Food Science Scholarship Catherine Merigliano, Indigo Weaver, and Andrew Lee Burton M. Newell Award Luke Shawn Thomas Cristie Abigail "Abbi" Fleming Dairy Science Scholarship Melanie Bacon Dr. Frank and Rachel Kirby Thomas Food Science and Family Consumer Sciences Scholarship Rayce Ely, Mariam Bayeh, Catherine LaPerna, and Charis Harcum Dr. Isadore and Cynthia Peppe Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences Scholarship Addison Detig, Danielle Shawver Dr. Peggy Foegeding Memorial Food Science Scholarship Lucy Caldwell Dr. Wanida Lewis Food Science Fellowship Award Endowment Urvi Shah Duong, Green and Gharst Food Science Leadership Award Endowment Rebekah Brown and Dhruv Ghevariya

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Food Science Club Professional Development Scholarship Urvi Shah, Mrunmayi Chawnekar, Sudarshan Medagam, and Tia Meredith Food Science Club Travel Scholarship Luke Shawn Thomas Fred Tarver Poultry Products Scholarship Sarah Williams H. Hawkins Bradley Scholarship Mollie Ruinsky Harvey L. and Kathleen R. Barnes Scholarship Erin Griffin, Adrianna Dioli, and Joseph Harrington

Livio Ferruzzi Memorial Agricultural Scholarship Maddie Brenner Mose and Helen Kiser Scholarship John Paliotti Neil and Nancy Webb Memorial Food Science Scholarship Dylan Sharp North Carolina Meat Processors Association Scholarship in Memory of John W. Long Luke Shawn Thomas Robert H. Hartman Graduate Endowment Diego Garcia and Leah Dexter-Boone

Hase H. and Lena M. Smith Scholarship Will Adams

Robert N. Wood - NC Dairy Products Association Memorial Scholarship Mrunmayi Chawnekar

Ivan D. and Lillian T. Jones Food Science Scholarship Lottie Pate

Stephanie Christine Anderson Scholarship Kevin Bolin, Melanie Bacon, and Daniel Li

J. Frank & Margaret B. Neely Scholarship Ria Jamshaid, Tristyn Mosslih, Maliha Tuba, Alexandra Moore, Emily Kumar, Darren Liu, Riley Cutler, Jessica Staton, and Jackson Edwards

T.W. Garner Food Company (Texas Pete) Scholarship Abigail Commodore

James L. and Diana G. Oblinger Scholarship Alvina Moon

Eakes-Turner Food Science Scholarship Eliza Buhrman

John and Kelli Rushing Food Science Freshman Scholarship Nathan Wurst

Ellen Swallow Richards Endowed Nutrition Scholarship Tiffany Williams

John Rushing, Southeastern Food Processor's Association Scholarship Anna Meier

Food Science Club Active Member Scholarship Charis Harcum, Lanvy Lutz, Shauna Johnson, and Rayce Ely

Leonard and Frances Crouch Scholastic Achievement Award Will Adams, Lucy Caldwell, and Luke Shawn Thomas

Thomas N. Blumer Scholarship Rebecca Love Todd R. and Amy E. Klaenhammer FBNS Graduate Award Endowment in Food Microbiology and Functional Genomics Kalani Gast Victor and Maryetta Jones Scholarship Kirstin Brown, Abdullah-Ahmed Abdelkader, and Chloe Wilder

Like what you’re reading? Support FBNS: go.ncsu.edu/fbns_fund

Recruitment Activities April: > Science Olympiad

NC Science Festival The FBNS recruiting committee has been very actively recruiting new students into the program.

Gov. Roy Cooper made a guest appearance at our recruiting booth on April 22 at the NC Science Festival.

May: > Institute of Future Agriculture Leaders (IFAL)

June: > FFA Convention and Tour

July: > IFT Annual Meeting > Life Sciences First Year New Student Orientation

NC Science Festival

(nutrition science majors) > CALS First Year New Student Orientation

(food science and bioprocessing science majors) > North Carolina 4-H Congress > UNCP’s USDA camp > CAALS 3D Programs

July 23 - Aug. 10: > CASE Institute Workshop

October: > CALS Tailgate > NC State Open House

IFT Annual Meeting 23

NC State University Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences Campus Box 7624 Raleigh, NC 27695 -7624

Meet four long-time staff members who collectively have spent 143 years with FBNS. See page 8 to learn what they love about the department and what has kept them here so long.

Beth King

Karl Hedrick

Years of service: 39

Years of service: 34

Ruth Watkins

Years of service: 34

Michele Yates Years of service: 36

Connect with FBNS, alumni and friends. ncsu.edu/fbns

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