Our Team
DHARMENDRA MISHRA Ph. D.
Dr. Dharmendra Mishra is Processing Authority for acid / acidified and low-acid foods in both still and continuous flow systems. His expertise includes manufacturing multi-phase particulate modeling and validation, commercializing technologies, retort, aseptic, and novel thermal processing; mathematical modeling; inverse problems and statistical analysis. Prior to joining the faculty at Purdue, Dr. Mishra worked in the food industry for Campbell's Soup, Nestle Nutrition, and Mead Johnson Nutrition.
Dr. Mishra conducts the following extension workshops to train industry professionals:
- Aseptic Workshop
- Better Process Control School
- Validation Workshop
Amandeep Singh
Ph. D student- Graduate Research Assistant
Amandeep earned his bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science, majoring in Food Science and Technology, from Punjab Agricultural University, India, in 2018. He later completed a master’s degree in Agriculture, Environment and Sustainability Sciences at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2021, where his research focused on the growth kinetics of Salmonella in fresh and fresh-cut produce. He joined the Mishra Lab in Fall 2022, and his current research centers on developing microbial validation techniques for thermal processing.
HARNEEL KAUR
Ph. D student- Graduate Research Assistant
Harneel earned her B.Sc. (Honors) in Agriculture with a major in Food Science and Technology from Punjab Agricultural University, India, in 2018, and her M.S. in Animal and Veterinary Sciences (Food Microbiology and Safety) from the University of Wyoming in 2021. Her master’s research focused on antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and Enterococcus spp. in Wyoming surface waters. She joined the Mishra Lab at Purdue University in August 2023 as a Ph.D. student, where her research focuses on thermal inactivation kinetics and survival of thermophilic sporeformers in high-protein food systems.
Rahul D. Kamath
Ph. D student- Graduate Research Assistant
Rahul completed his B. Tech in Food Engineering and Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, in 2021, and his MS in Food Science and Technology from The Ohio State University in 2023. His master's research focused on fouling and cleaning of dairy-plant protein beverages during thermal processing. In August 2023, he joined the Mishra Lab as a Ph.D. student. His doctoral research explores milk protein-fiber interactions and the effects of processing on high-protein, high-fiber food matrices.
Audrey Searing-Hettel
Master's student- Graduate Research AssistantAudrey earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Western Michigan University in 2021. She then worked in protein innovation at Kalsec before joining Purdue Food Science in 2022. Since joining the team, she has contributed to a wide range of projects, with particular pride in supporting industry partners and entrepreneurs in product development and commercialization, as well as facilitating and teaching laboratories at the annual aseptic workshops. Her master’s thesis focuses on high-moisture extrusion of plant-based meat analogs.
Xiang "Chase" Chen
Ph. D student- Graduate Research AssistantAlumni
Ph. D. Student
Connie earned her B.S. in Food Science from Purdue in 2013 and her M.S. in Food Science from the University of Idaho in 2015. She joined Dr. Mishra’s group in August 2017 to pursue her second master’s in food processing, after working in the food industry for 2 years in R&D. She continued her Ph.D with Dr. Mishra and graduated in 2022. Her dissertation focused on the development of an innovative technology for shelf life prediction of food and beverages. Currently, she is working with Niagara Bottling as a Staff Engineer.
Master's StudentAjay graduated with a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Biotechnology from Mumbai University in India. He has couple of internship experiences one at R.C.F. Limited as a R&D Trainee and second at Nutrahelix Biotech Pvt. Ltd., wherein he was working on nutrition and quality analysis of gluten-free pasta. He joined the Mishra Lab in Fall 2019. His project was focused on inactivation and modeling of food-borne pathogens in low-moisture foods using thermal treatment and non-thermal cold plasma. He graduated in Fall 2022 with a Master's in Food Science. He is currently working as a Quality Engineer at Niagara Bottling.
Master's Student
Javier received his agronomy technician degree from ENCA, Guatemala in 2014 and then received his Bachelor's degree in Food Science from Zamorano University, Honduras in December 2018. He worked as an intern in Mishra Lab during the spring semester 2018 on an image analysis project. He came back to pursue his MS degree with Dr. Mishra, working on green innovative CIP system. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia.
Master's StudentFernando received his Bachelor’s degree in Food Science from Zamorano University, Honduras in 2017. He worked as an intern in Mishra Lab during the spring semester 2017, where he helped set up the lab. His Master's research focuses on designing an in-line method to measure food thermal properties during aseptic processing. Fernando graduated with a M.S. in Food Science in 2020. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.