Graduate Student Profile - Adam Quinn

Adam Quinn successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in May 2025. Adam is originally from Big Sandy, Montana, and holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Brigham Young University (BYU).

Adam's dissertation was entitled, "Wheat Dietary Fiber Effects on Gut Microbiota Selective Growth".

Adam's research explored which types of gut bacteria can efficiently use dietary fibers from wheat. "Our gut microbiomes are made up of complex communities of different organisms that have their own unique roles in capturing energy from the dietary fibers we consume. My research demonstrated that preferences for fibers among these bacteria are dependent on wheat type and post-harvest processing. I further found that the same low abundance organisms consistently increases when you tightly control the dietary fiber type fed to individuals, despite high diversity in gut microbiomes among different people."

Adam was advised by Dr. Steve Lindemann. Other members of his graduate committee included Dr. Senay Simsek, Dr. Bruce Hamaker, Dr. Timothy Johnson and Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi.

Adam chose Purdue Food Science for his graduate studies because of the program’s strong academic reputation and impactful research. "I was interested in joining a top food science program to prepare for a teaching career in academia. I became very excited about the research being done at Purdue after hearing several talks from Purdue Food Science faculty at an IFT Conference in 2019."

During his time at Purdue, Adam received the Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School in 2025, and he earned the ARGE Graduate Diversity Research Assistantship from Purdue's College of Agriculture for 2020-2022. To supplement his studies with professional development, Adam served as the Vice President of the Student Association of Applied Microbiome Sciences from 2022-2024.

This fall, Adam plans to join the School of Food Science at Washington State University as a Teaching Assistant Professor. Congratulations, Adam! We can't wait to see what you accomplish next!