WSU - Ranked Among the Top Research Universities
Washington State University is ranked among the top research universities in the United States according to U.S. News. In the School of Food Science at Washington State University, you will receive an incredible one-on-one education and research opportunities from our world-class faculty.
- High-Quality Programs
- Opportunity to Become Completely Immersed in Program
(This translates to a lower than average number of years to complete your degree.) - Excellent Financial Support
The majority of graduate students here are full-time students and receive support.
Faculty and Their Focus
- Byung-Kee Baik (Crop & Soil Sciences, bbaik@wsu.edu): Chemistry and processing of cereal grains and legumes, and chemistry and functional properties of starch, protein and fibers. Research projects include influence of amylose content of wheat on bread and noodle quality, protein quality of wheat required for making Asian noodles, color and discolorization of barley-based food products, preprocessing of chickpeas, lentils and peas for fortification of wheat-based products, and antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of peas, chickpeas, and lentils.
- Boon P. Chew: The role of carotenoids and other antioxidants in immune modulation, cancer prevention, anti-inflammatory action, and cognitive function in canine, feline, rodent and human models.
- Stephanie Clark: Studying the chemical and microbiological factors influencing the flavor, texture, functional properties, and safety of foods made from the milk of cows, goats and sheep. Strives to understand dairy chemistry and/or attempts to utilize dairy ingredients in novel ways. Current research projects examine a defect that is common to Cheddar cheese: calcium lactate crystals. The manufacturing conditions, microbiological and enzymatic factors that cause the appearance defect are being studied. Another project has been designed to examine the effect of high hydrostatic pressure upon flavor-binding and functional properties of whey proteins.
- Richard H. Dougherty: Practical aspects of food processing, food product development, and food business development. Works closely with food processors in Washington in evaluating and solving their technical, marketing and general business problems.
- Charles G. Edwards: The microbiology and chemistry of wines. Projects include studying the bacterial fermentation of wines known as the malolactic fermentation, the influence of cellar practices on fermentation microbiology and wine quality, and the relationship between the use of different strains of microorganisms and production of volatile compounds important for sensory characteristics.
- James Harbertson: Wine Chemistry. Research interests are focused on the phenolic compounds found in grapes and wine and their biochemical and chemical changes during grape ripening, winemaking and aging. Example projects include understanding the variability of tannin found in red wine cultivars and the ultimate relationship between tannin, polymeric pigments and astringency. Works with wineries to solve simple and difficult problems and is located in the wine-grape growing region at the WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center.
- Dong-Hyun Kang: Food safety, particularly the recovery of injured microorganisms, control of foodborne pathogens, and the application of HACCP plans. Recent research has focused on developing new methods and media to be used in the industry to detect and monitor foodborne pathogens or spoilage microorganisms in food products.
- Alan R. McCurdy: Modification of food lipids, meat microbiology and microbial food safety. Studies have been carried out on chemical and enzymatic hydrogenation, interesterification, esterification and other means to alter the physical properties of lipids.
- Joseph R. Powers: Enzymes and proteins of food products, primarily fruits and vegetables. One current research project focuses on the study of enzymes responsible for off-flavor development in frozen vegetables. Another area of interest is the enzymology of polysaccharide synthesis in plants, specifically starch in potatoes and cell wall components in fruits and vegetables.
- Barbara A. Rasco: Process and product development in fisheries technology and aquaculture including studies on the chemical and nutritional properties of food. Development of spectroscopic analytical and biomarker methods for process control and microbial detection in foods. Other interests are food safety and food security, including: products liability, environmental issues and regulatory reform.
- Kerry Ringer: Works with wineries to solve simple and difficult problems and is located in the wine-grape growing region at the WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center.
- Carolyn Ross: Sensory and chemical analysis of foods including wines with analytical chemistry techniques to identify and describe changes in flavor and odor profiles. Evaluation of aroma and flavor compounds and precursors, and the changes in these compounds due to viticultural and enological practices. Studying the impact of appellations on grape and wine properties, the effect of organic farming regimes on grape, and wine flavors and odors, and the impact of pests on wine aromas. Research interests in food consist of studying changes in sensory profiles of foods as a result of advanced processing techniques, and the interaction of flavors and aromas with packaging material.
- Barry G. Swanson: Studies of legume protein digestibility and storage quality in collaboration with four US universities and the Institute for Nutrition in Central America and Panama (INCAP) supported by the USAID Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). In the 1980's, initial studies with sucrose fatty acid polyesters led to extensive research on syntheses of fat substitutes, alternative fat replacers and methods to improve the quality of reduced fat cheeses. Current research efforts in cooperation with Gustavo Barbosa-Canovas and the establishment of the WSU Center for the Non-thermal Processing of Foods led to substantial fundamental research on microbial inactivation and quality of foods treated with high intensity pulsed electric fields and high hydrostatic pressures. Current research focuses on the implementation of ultra high pressures to improve cheese yield, attenuate adjunct cultures to accelerate aging and improve the flavor of Cheddar cheeses, and improve the hydrophobic functional properties of whey proteins.
Labs/Research Facilities
Facilities include a well-equipped pilot plant, tissue culture room, research laboratories, a sensory evaluation lab and a live-in human metabolic unit. Central research facilities at Washington State University provide opportunities to become competent in statistics, computer science, ionizing radiation, electron microscopy, state-of-the-art instrumentation, laboratory nutrition, food service systems management, and the processing of dairy, cereal, fruit, meat and vegetable products. Modern departmental research laboratories are well equipped for chemical, physical and microbiological analyses, and for human metabolic studies.
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