IAFP Announces 2012 Student Travel Scholarship Recipients

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Des Moines, Iowa - The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) will present Student Travel Scholarships to the following individuals at IAFP 2012, July 22-25, in Providence, Rhode Island. Sponsored by the IAFP Foundation, the Student Travel Scholarships provide travel funds to enable selected students to travel to and participate in IAFP 2012.

Frederick Adzitey is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Food Safety at the University of Science of Malaysia (USM). An Assistant Lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS), he is currently working on the prevalence, antibiotic resistance, and genetic diversity of Campylobacter species, Salmonella serovars, and Listeria monocytogenes isolated from ducks and their environmental samples in Penang for his doctorate degree. He also serves as a laboratory assistant, sharing his experiences and instructing undergraduate and post-graduate students in the areas of food safety.

Eva Danira Borjas Orellana is an M.Sc. student in Food Science/Food Safety at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Ms. Borjas completed her undergraduate degree at Zamorano University in her native Honduras, where she was part of the learning-by-doing program offering academic and hands-on experiences in each stage of the production and processing chain of dairy, meat, and produce. Ms. Borjas expects to complete her master's degree mid-2012 and will join Dr. Wei Zhang's laboratory as a research intern at the National Center of Food Safety and Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Sharon Bagaaya received her B.Sc. in Food Science and Technology in 2010 at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and is currently working as a research assistant in the university's Department of Food Technology and Nutrition. She conducted her internship at Century Bottling Company in Uganda, gaining experience with Food Safety Management Systems, such as HACCP and GMP. Her current work involves food product development using locally available staples while ensuring the production of high quality, safe, and wholesome food products.

Wei Chen, originally from southeast China,is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, with a concentration in Food Safety and Management. Ms. Chen also serves as a teaching assistant and monitors research conducted by undergraduate students. In addition, she is currently enrolled at the University of Tennessee Culinary Institute, studying food from a culinary standpoint.

Chawalit Kocharunchitt is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Food Safety Centre at the University of Tasmania in Australia. Originally from Thailand, Mr. Kocharunchitt's doctorate project, funded by Meat and Livestock Australia, examines the physiological changes in Escherichia coli on carcasses during air chilling. With colleagues and peers, he pioneered the technology and used bioinformatics tools to translate the extensive results into useful insights that could lead to new interventions against enteric pathogens on carcasses.

Min Hwa Lee is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Food and Nutrition at Chung-Ang University in the Republic of Korea. She is currently participating in collaborative research projects with the Korean Food and Drug Administration and the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention and is also participating in a climate change and food safety research project. Ms. Lee has previously reported on the prevalence of Arcobacter species in retail meats in Korea and plans to present on a similar topic at IAFP 2012.

Laura Strawn is a doctoral candidate at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, studying food microbiology and epidemiology. Through her research, Ms. Strawn hopes to supply farmers with science-based recommendations to minimize the risk of pre-harvest contamination. She has published three first author peer-reviewed papers, co-authored a book chapter, and presented over ten abstracts at various local and national meetings. Ms. Strawn received first place in the poster competition for the Developing Scientist Award at IAFP 2009.  

Fabrício Tulini, a native of Brazil, is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, where he also received his undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and Biochemistry and his master's degree in Sciences. He is currently developing his doctorate studies on isolation and characterization of lactic acid bacteria with antimicrobial and proteolytic activities on milk proteins, aiming to improve safety and shelf-life of dairy products, as well as reducing lactoserum allergenicity.

Qiongqiong Yan is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in the Centre for Food Safety (WHO Collaborating Centre for Research, Reference and Training on Cronobacter) at University College Dublin in Ireland. Originally from China, Ms. Yan has conducted extensive research on pathogen bacteria, such as Cronobacter, a pathogen most frequently isolated from powdered infant formula (PIF). She is currently working on a project to develop a quick and reliable detection platform for Cronobacter in PIF and other related food.