IAFP Announces 2013 Student Travel Scholarship Recipients

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Des Moines, Iowa – The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) will present Student Travel Scholarships to the following individuals at IAFP 2013, July 28–31, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sponsored by the IAFP Foundation, the Student Travel Scholarships provide travel funds to enable selected students to travel to and participate in IAFP 2013.

Gbenga Adewumi is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Food Microbiology at the University of Lagos in his native Nigeria. His research is focused on starter cultures development and probiotic potentials of Bacillus species isolated from fermented Parkia biglobosa seeds. Mr. Adewumi’s research findings have been published in various local and international scientific articles.

Apurba Chakraborty is a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, where he analyzes the epidemiologic data of Yersiniosis from multiple U.S. states. Prior to his graduate studies, Mr. Chakraborty worked as an outbreak investigator for the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research in his native Bangladesh, where he investigated outbreaks involving food safety-related issues and security.

Clarisse Compaoré is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Bobo Dioulasso, Department of Food Technology, in her native Burkina Faso (West Africa), where she has been working on spontaneous fermentations of various indigenous food condiments from her native country, examining their nutritional and microbiology qualities. Her Ph.D. project is on Bikalga, an alkaline Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds fermented condiment, with the goal to improve its safety and quality through the use of starter cultures to control fermentation. Mrs. Compaoré’s research has been presented and published in national and international food safety symposia and peer-reviewed journals.

Amanda King is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Department of Animal Science. Originally from Illinois, Ms. King works in a variety of research, extension and teaching roles. Her research interest lies in enhancing the safety of alternatively cured processed meats by further understanding and supplementing the impact of nitrite on Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium perfringens. She also collaborates with UW–Extension as a food safety resource for meat processors and assists with a one-of-a-kind Master Meta Crater training program for small processors and suppliers within the meat industry.

Edyta Margas is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, studying Salmonella survival in low aw food environments. Her background includes research, consultancy and training in new processing methods (e.g., high-pressure processing, ultrasound and pulsed light) and factory hygiene (e.g., hygienic design, factory, layout and personnel hygiene). She has presented at scientific meetings worldwide and chaired a Food Safety Symposium at the 2012 IAFP European Symposium in Warsaw, Poland. She is an active member of the EHEDG Dry Materials Handling Subgroup and the EU COST action BacFoodNet.

Ismail Odetokun is a Ph.D. candidate in Veterinary Public Health at the University of Ibadan in his native country of Nigeria. He is currently working on the characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Southwestern Nigeria, and intends to expound the current carriage rates, prevalence among the occupationally exposed and food animals, their sequence types, phylogeny, clonal clusters, virulence and potential risk factors facilitating the spread of MRSA. His background includes research completed on biofilm formation by foodborne pathogens on food contact surfaces and their sensitivity to sanitizers.

Lorraine Rodriguez-Rivera is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY. Her Ph.D. thesis research is focused on the virulence, pathogenicity and host specificity of Salmonella enterica. Through collaboration with research groups inside and outside Cornell, she is co-author on eight peer-review publications, all focused on Salmonella and Listeria, and has presented seven abstracts at local and national conferences. Ms. Rodriguez-Rivera is a past secretary for the IAFP Student Professional Development Group. She is originally from Puerto Rico.

Dong Joo Seo, a native of South Korea, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Food and Nutrition at Chung-Ang University in the Republic of Korea. She is currently participating in several research projects funded by the Korean Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Rural Development Administration. Her research is primarily focused on the rapid detection technique for remerging pathogens and development of the hurdle technology for the control of foodborne viruses in food matrix, including seafood. Ms. Seo is a published author in two international journals and will present at IAFP 2013.

Elizabeth Noelia Williams (neé Vidal Chirinos) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on developing practical means for improving the risk basis for HACCP programs. Originally from Peru, she has presented abstracts at local and national conferences and will present at IAFP 2013. She is co-author of a publication on elaboration of HACCP and quality plans for frozen avocado pulp and of a book chapter on the use of HACCP to manage microbiological food safety risks. She is active in her local IAFP Affiliate and with both the IAFP Microbial Modeling and Risks Analysis and the IAFP Student Professional Development Groups.

Yishan Yang, a native of China, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Food Science and Technology Program at the National University of Singapore in Singapore. Her current research focuses on the understanding of the response of Salmonella Enteritidis to food-related environmental stresses, such as unfavorable temperature and pH. S. Enteritidis, one of the leading causes of bacterial foodborne diseases in the world. Ms. Yang will present on her latest research at IAFP 2013.