Letter from Department Head

2 Letter from Department Head 4 Embracing Big Questions Through a Multidisciplinary Lens 7 The Next-Best to Fresh

10 Finding Community and Connections in Food Science

11 Family Bond Drives Passion for Nutrition 12 Opportunity Abounds for Bioprocessing Major 13 Alumni Profile: Mandy Taylor 14 Alumni Profile: Natalie Cooke

15 Contamination Detective

15 Could Plasma Be a Sustainable Solution for Sanitation?

16 Seed Funding for NC State Startup TreeCo 17 Nutrition Faculty Receive Gertrude Cox Award 17 The Science of Making Good Beer 18 The Next Generation of Beer Experts 18 Creating a Favorable Gut Environment 18 FBNS in the News

19 Department Notes Faculty/Staff Hires, Retirements, Awards 20 Student Awards and Honors

22 FBNS Scholarship Award Winners 23 Recruitment Activities

UPCOMING EVENTS

2022

Fall Commencement

2023

Awards Banquet Spring Commencement Faculty and Staff Retreat FNBS Breakfast at Annual IFT Meeting Dec 17

Apr 19 May 6 May 11

July 16 Students are our future. At FBNS we strive to do all that we can to support, encourage, and train them to be leaders — guiding them to take leadership roles in departmental activities, clubs and professional societies in addition to providing stimulating engagement in research activities and internships. In this issue, we feature a few undergraduate students in food science, bioprocessing science, and nutrition science, and graduate students in food science and nutrition.

Our students, staff, and faculty are located at four places -- the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City; the Plants for Human Health Institute at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis; the Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery in Raleigh; and Schaub Hall on the main campus of NC State in Raleigh. Enhancing collaborations between these locations has become a mission of the department. This year, the annual departmental retreat was held at Kannapolis, and it will be held at Morehead City in 2023.

Recruitment efforts have been boosted and streamlined. As our students are in high demand, we continue to enhance our curriculum and student opportunities. An undergraduate minor in Brewing Science and Technology was created and the graduate-level Food Safety minor was revamped. The construction of a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) pilot plant has been completed for both our students and industry partners to utilize. An online Professional Science Masters program in Food Science is being developed for our industry and alumni partners. And, a research program will be launched that focuses on sustainability in various aspects of food production, bioprocessing operations, and meeting the nutritional needs of our society.

The strengthening of our industry and alumni connections continues to be a priority. We hosted our first FBNS Extension Day and Alumni Octoberfest this semester and plan to host the first FBNS Research Day and Alumni Springfest next semester. I invite our industry and alumni partners to join our Industry Partners Advisory Council (IPAC) and also help establish new student scholarships and develop a student-alumni mentoring program. Your leadership, support, and active engagement is essential to the success of our program.

I am very thankful for the continued support, commitment, and leadership of our wonderful faculty, staff, emeritus faculty, retirees, students, alumni, and industry partners and look forward to working with our FBNS family to move this department forward and better prepare our students — our future leaders — for the workforce.

FBNS Fall 2021 Graduates