Purdue Food Science Faculty
Faculty within the Department of Food Science are conducting groundbreaking research that will shape the future of the food industry in each of our signature research areas - foods for health; food chemistry, structure and function; food safety and microbiology, and food processing and technology development. Our faculty members' specific areas of expertise and contact information are listed below.
Bruce Applegate
765.496.7920
Application of bacterial bioluminescence to critical areas associated with food safety along the farm to fork continuum including: pathogen detection, antimicrobial efficacy and food processing
Patnarin Benyathiar
Food processing and packaging technology, packaging sterilization for aseptic foods, packaging innovation for food shelf-life extension, nanoencapsulation in food packaging, development and application of biodegradable packaging materials, packaging recycling (rPET)
Arun Bhunia
765.494.5443
Microbial pathogenesis, host immune response, bioengineered probiotics approach in mitigating foodborne pathogen infection, and pathogen and toxin detection using mammalian cell-based biosensors and immunosensors
Christian Butzke
765.494.6500
Enology: Grape and wine production and processing, modeling of soil and climate effects on fruit composition and wine quality, fermentation kinetics, winery design and equipment, wine quality control, wine aging and stability, distillation
Thaisa Cantu-Jungles
765.494.5885
Prebiotic fibers for targeted and predictable responses in people, prebiotic strategies to suppress gut pathogens, prebiotic fiber blends to support the core health-related microbial group, non-carbohydrate molecules with prebiotic potential
Da Chen
765.496.4299
Plant protein ingredient development, plant-based meat analogs, plant protein-based fat replacers, edible high-protein gels, scaffold development for cell cultured meat
Carlos Corvalan
765.494.8262
Food engineering design and development. Future of food design. Computational food engineering. Food data science. Data-driven design and machine learning. Environmental food engineering
Amanda Deering
765.494.0512
Fresh produce food safety, internalization of human pathogenic bacteria in plants, development of novel sanitizers for fresh produce
Yaohua (Betty) Feng
765.494.0331
Food safety risk communication, implications of human behavior in food safety risk assessment, consumer food safety perception and intervention
Bruce Hamaker
765.494.5668
Carbohydrates and health, glycemic carbs and physiological response, dietary fiber and the gut microbiome, polysaccharide and protein structure-function relationships
Owen Jones
765.496.7723
Interactions and assembled structures using proteins and polysaccharides to improve food stability and function
Kee-Hong Kim
765.496.2330
Bioactive food components and obesity biology; transcriptional and signaling regulation of lipid metabolism and metabolic disorders
Andrea Liceaga
765.496.2460
Emerging and sustainable protein sources (edible insects, novel plants, etc.), bioactive and therapeutic peptides; sensory evaluation of food
Steve Lindemann
765.494.9207
Dietary fiber polysaccharide structure influences on human gut microbiome structure and function; Metabolic interactions and division of labor in microbial communities; Host-pathogencommensal interactions; Molecular microbial ecology
Lisa Mauer
765.494.0111
Food materials science, water-solid interactions, shelf-life, infrared spectroscopy techniques for rapid, non-destructive food analysis
Dharmendra Mishra
765.494.2594
Commercial food manufacturing, Non-invasive sensors, Microbiological validation, Food
process modeling, Effect of processing on food safety and quality, Training for food processors
and regulators
process modeling, Effect of processing on food safety and quality, Training for food processors
and regulators
Eun Joong Oh
765.496.5012
Industrial fermentations; Metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce value-added
products; Synthetic biology approaches to engineer regulatory proteins and pathway enzymes;
Engineering probiotic strains to promote gut health.
products; Synthetic biology approaches to engineer regulatory proteins and pathway enzymes;
Engineering probiotic strains to promote gut health.
Haley Oliver-Jischke
765.496.3913
Stress survival and virulence mechanisms in foodborne pathogens; food safety in retail food
environments; food safety research for development
environments; food safety research for development
Lavanya Reddivari
765.496.6102
Plant flavonoids, fiber and gut bacterial metabolism in health and low-grade, inflammation-driven chronic diseases
Fernanda San Martin
765.496.1140
Food processing, encapsulation of highly hydrophobic compounds by high pressure homogenization, continuous microwave thermal processing of fruit and vegetable products
Senay Simsek
765.494.8257
Structure-function relationships of carbohydrates, Cereal chemistry and quality, Utilization of grain derived functional ingredients in the baking industry, Value adding strategies for cereal and legume byproducts
Deandrae Smith
765.494.4183
Novel food processing technologies, food quality, microbiological validation, food process engineering, product development, value-added food products
Weicang Wang
765.496.4298
Lipid metabolism and gut health, nutraceuticals and disease prevention
Yuan Yao
765.494.6317
Rational design of carbohydrates and biobased nanomaterials for enhanced food safety and quality, controlled delivery of bioactive compounds, carbohydrate analysis
Matheus Zavadinack
Carbohydrate chemistry, with an emphasis on structure–function relationships