IAFP Announces 2020 Student Travel Scholarship Recipients

Friday, June 19, 2020

Des Moines, Iowa - The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) will present Student Travel Scholarships to the following individuals at IAFP 2020, October 25–28, in Cleveland, Ohio. Sponsored by the IAFP Foundation, the Student Travel Scholarships provide travel funds to enable selected students to travel to and participate in IAFP 2020.

Cameron Bardsley is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and at the Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Painter. Mr. Bardsley’s current research is in produce safety, more specifically focusing on factors that influence the survival of Salmonella in agricultural soils and internalization in solanaceous crops such as tomatoes and bell peppers during pre-harvest production. He was a finalist in the IAFP 2015 Developing Scientist Competition and received second place in the IAFP 2019 Graduate Developing Scientist Poster Competition. Mr. Bardsley has a B.S. in Food Science from Brigham Young University.

Brianna Britton is a Ph.D. student in Food Safety and Microbiology at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, where her primary dissertation project is focused on developing a predictive risk model to assist retailers in identifying stores with high risks of Listeria monocytogenes contamination. She is also conducting research on assessing microbial contamination of groundnuts in Senegal, including evaluation for aflatoxins, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, and yeast and molds. Ms. Britton holds an M.S. and a B.S. in Animal Science, both from Colorado State University. She plans to pursue a Post-Doctoral Fellowship before beginning a career in academia or research in industry or government.

Alessia Delbrück is a doctoral candidate in the Laboratory of Sustainable Food Processing at ETH Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland. In her doctoral research, Ms. Delbrück investigates high-pressure superdormant bacterial spores to contribute to the development of a mild and effective non-thermal, pressure-based control strategy for bacterial spores. She obtained her B.S. and M.Sc. in Food Science, both from ETH Zurich, with an exchange semester at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, Ms. Delbrück worked for two years for Migros, the leading Swiss food company. She is a recipient of the 2020 IAFP European Symposium for Food Safety Student Travel Scholarship.

Erika Estrada is a first-year Ph.D. candidate in the Food Science Graduate group at the University of California – Davis in Davis. Her research focuses on understanding cross-contamination routes, transfer rates, and investigating the genetic differences of foodborne pathogens causing safety problems to the pistachio and walnut industry.  Ms. Estrada holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California – Davis and a Master’s in Life Sciences from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was a recipient of the J. Mac Goepfert Developing Scientist Award at IAFP 2019.

Savana Everhart is completing her Ph.D. in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Ms. Everhart’s current research is on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance as it relates to pre-harvest food safety, specifically in beef cattle. She also serves as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate food microbiology lab. She received her B.S. in Food Science and Animal Science and an M.S. in Food Science, both at North Carolina State University. During the past two years, Ms. Everhart has been the Student Liaison for the Pre Harvest Food Safety Professional Development Group.

Emily Foraurer is completing her M.Sc. in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Her research is on the resistance of mature L. monocytogenes biofilms to quaternary ammonium compounds, using strains isolated from Vermont dairies. She is also leading a project to determine the presence of pathogens and probiotics microbial communities isolated from raw milk from homestead dairy producers. In addition, Ms. Foraurer is a teaching assistant of Food Technology and Food Microbiology undergraduate courses at the university. She received a B.S. in Pathology and Veterinary Science and a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut.

Ahmed Gomaa is a Ph.D. candidate in Food Science at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, with a concentration on food microbiology and nutritional biochemistry. Mr. Gomaa’s research goals are to assess the effects of synbiotics on inflammation and its antimicrobial effects as an alternative to antibiotics on the growth of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg. A native of Egypt, he received an M.S. in Nutrition from Brooklyn College and a B.S. in Food Science and Technology from Alexandria University in Egypt.

Marti Hua began his Ph.D. studies in January 2020 in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he earned both his B.S. and M.S. in Food Science. Mr. Hua’s research will touch on developing smart sensors for natural toxin analysis (e.g., mycotoxins, marine toxins) in response to the urgent needs of hazard monitoring by the regulatory agencies and the food industry. He also helps to instruct the Food Analysis course at the university as a teaching assistant and manages the chemistry laboratory for the research groups to which he belongs. He is a member of and helps with many events for the IAFP Affiliate, the British Columbia Food Protection Association.

Xingyi Jiang is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where she also obtained her M.S. Her research interest is in utilizing immunochemical techniques to develop assays for food adulterant detection. One of her research projects focuses on the assay development for the major fish allergen. She was also a teaching assistant of undergraduate courses in the Foods Laboratory and the Food Science Laboratory. Ms. Jiang holds a B.S. in Food Quality and Safety at Nanjing Agriculture University in China.

Xinyu Liao is a Ph.D. student in the College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science at Zhejiang University in China, where she also obtained her undergraduate degree in Food Safety and Nutrition. Ms. Liao’s research at the university focuses on the application of non-thermal plasma (NTP) on controlling foodborne pathogens in foods and the stress response of foodborne pathogens to NTP treatment. Through an overseas research internship program from Zhejiang University, Ms. Liao is currently studying at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver for eight months as a visiting Ph.D. student, working on several research projects. These include the construction of a microfluidic “lab-on-a-chip” device coupled with isothermal amplification for automatic and on-step detection of viable-but-non-culturable state of Campylobacter in food products.

Claire Marik completed her M.S. in Food Science and Technology from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in May 2020. Ms. Marik’s research examined the impact and risks associated with the use of anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD), a non-chemical soil fumigation alternative, and the soil amendments used during the ASD process on Salmonella soil populations and serovar specific survival. She also served as a graduate teaching assistant for the Food Microbiology course during her studies. Ms. Marik earned a B.S. in Food Science with minors in Chemistry and Public Health from the University of Delaware.

Francis Muchaamba is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland. Mr. Muchaamba’s research includes investigating how cold-shock domain family proteins contribute to regulation of virulence and stress resistance mechanisms in Listeria monocytogenes, as well as the potential use of potassium lactate as a sodium chloride replacer to reduced salt levels used in salami production. He earned a Bachelor’s of Veterinary Science from the University of Zimbabwe and a DVM from the University of Zurich.

Kizito Nishimwe will graduate in December 2020 with a Ph.D. in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University in Ames. Mr. Nishimwe’s research focuses on the mitigation of aflatoxins in grain-based food and feed products. A native of Rwanda, he earned an M.S. in Food Safety Management from the University of Liege in Belgium and a DVM from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal.

Duke GekongeOmayio is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, where he also obtained his B.Sc. in Food Science and Technology and an M.Sc. in Food Safety and Quality. Mr. Gekonge’s research is on natural guava processing and focuses on developing affordable fruit processing techniques that can be adopted at the household levels to produce commercially viable, safe and nutritious biofortified natural guava nectars to tackle malnutrition while improving guava farmers’ households. A native of Kenya, he has developed, patented and market-tested nutritious and safe natural guava nectars and intends to develop training materials for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on guava processing.

Katie Overbey is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (part of Johns Hopkins University) in Baltimore, Maryland. Ms. Overbey’s dissertation project focuses on implementing a novel cell culture method to validate a range of food safety technologies for the inactivation of human norovirus. She also works as an assistant for the public relations team at the Center for a Livable Future and is the communications lead for the Johns Hopkins Surveillance and Outbreak Response Team. Ms. Overbey received a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina and an M.S. in Food Science from North Carolina State University.

Angélica Godínez Oviedo is currently a Ph.D. student in the Food Science Program at Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro in Mexico, where she also received an M.S. in Food Science and Technology. Ms. Oviedo recently enrolled in a double Ph.D. program with the collaboration of the University of Tasmania. A native of Mexico, her research is focused on a quantitative risk assessment of Salmonella on foods in the central region of Mexico. Ms. Oviedo earned a B.S. in Food Chemistry from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo and holds an issued patent from her research on the evaluation of natural disinfectant against foodborne pathogens.

Dácil Rivera is in the final stages of her Ph.D. in the interdepartmental program of Nutrition and Food Science at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago. Ms. Rivera is a veterinarian with the Universidad de Chile, where she also earned her master’s in Animal and Veterinary Sciences. She currently has a position as a lecturer at Andres Bello University while concluding her doctoral thesis, “Felixounavirus phages to control Salmonella Infantis in Chicken Matrices.” In addition, she has worked in the genomic characterization of 20 Salmonella phages, and developed a model system in the lab to study phage resistance and co-evolution.

Thiago Sugizaki dos Santos is an undergraduate student in Food Science at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agricultural at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Mr. Santos is currently conducting research on the microbiological quality and safety of organic and conventional fresh produce. Results from this study will be used as input data in a risk model to be constructed, aiming to estimate the health impacts associated with the consumption of leafy vegetables produced by both farming systems. Mr. Santos plans to pursue his master’s degree after graduation.

Mathilde Trudel-Ferland is a first-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Food Science at the Université Laval in Quebec City, Quebec, where she also received her M.Sc. in Food Science and her B.Sc. in Food Science and Technology. Ms. Trudel-Ferland’s research is on the development of routine concentration and detection methods to control viral foodborne illnesses, with the goal of developing two new viral concentration approaches into a research project involving industrial partners. She serves as a teaching assistant for undergraduate students and helps develop teaching materials for Food Microbiology courses at the university.  

Ingrid Zamora is pursuing her Ph.D. in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformational Training Centre (ITTC) for Food Safety in Fresh Produce at The University of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Ms. Zamora’s current research investigates the risks associated with Listeria monocytogenes contaminating fresh produce after primary production, a rising concern for the Australian fresh produce industry. She is also a teaching demonstrator for Food Quality and Processing and Food Microbiology classes at the university. Ms. Zamora graduated with first-class honors with a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the university.