• There were a number of awards and honors for students, faculty, and supporters of our department at the CFAES Celebration of Students event. The event was dedicated to FST adjunct faculty member Dr. John Litchfield; We recognized our FST Distinguished Seniors Kevin Berkowitz, Ashley Besancon, Lindsay Davis, and Sarah Steinbrunner; Ashley Besancon was recognized as a Newcomb Scholar; Morgan Whitecotton, Xiang Li, and Sok Lin Ang were recognized for placing in the CFAES UG Research Forum; Stephanie Scoggins received the internship Award; Citation Needed received the Student Organization Award for supporting the CFAES Mission; and FST advisory Board member Scott Higgins received the Meritorious Service to Students Award. 
• We celebrated student research with the OVIFT FoodSURE Spring Research Forum held in our department this past month. In the undergraduate category Morgan Whitecotton placed 1st and Jenna Fryer, Jack Gothier, and Stiphany Tieu were named finalists. In the graduate category Peren Aykas placed 1st and Ariel Garsow, Cliff Park, Michael Dzakovich, Shiyu Cai, and Yumin Xu were named finalists. In addition, representatives from OVIFT made scholarship award presentations to the following students: Amy Andes, Peren Aykas, Rob Hallinan, Mackenzie Hannum, and Amanda Sia. A special thanks to the industry representatives and faculty that served as judges for this event – Erica Boyd (Givaudan), Amy Bethel (Nestle), Kathryn Nixa (Swans), Bob Burge, (IMCD US Food) Kris Newton (Mission Essential Sales Consulting), Dr. Matthias Klein, Dr. Lynn Knipe, Dr. Denny Heldman, and Dr. Greg Sigurdson. 
• Dr. Barbara Kowalcyk was a keynote speaker at the World Health Organization’s International Food Safety Conference in Geneva. Her presentation was “The Future of Food Safety: Understanding the True Burden.” Dr. Kowalcyk also spoke at the 2019 Ohio Youth Institute.
• Dr. Yael Vodovotz, Post-Doctoral Researcher Dr. Xiaoying Zhao, and  Dr. Katrina Cornish recently released a paper in the journal Polymers on a study with biodegradable plastic that has been featured on abc6, Packaging Insights, Green Matters, and Ohio State News.
• The Center for Applied Plant Sciences (CAPS) announced that Dr. Yael Vodovotz and the Bioplastic Alternatives Interdisciplinary Team (BAIT) is one of three new scientific teams selected to receive support from the center. Cleck here to learn more about CAPS.
• Dr. Chris Simons wrote an editorial titled “Left out in the cold: Serving wines chilled” for the journal Temperature.
• Dr. Devin Peterson hosted a webinar for the Food Chemistry Division of IFT titled “Flavor technology in clean label products.”
• Dr. Ahmed Yousef was interviewed by Fox28 regarding a recent outbreak of E. Coli.
• Dr. Aby Snyder and her Ohioline fact sheet on moldy food was featured in a CFAES Chow Line.
• ‘Citation Needed’ and their outreach work with high schools was featured on Ohio State News.
• Congratulations to Food Science students Emily Kanney and Mackenzie Hannum who were chosen as two of the #150Scholars selected for the Sesquicentennial Student Leadership Program.
• Senior Sarah Steinbrunner was named by Ohio State as one of “Five grads to watch”.
• We had a number of participants in the 2019 CFAES Annual Research Conference. Congratulations to Dr. Hardy Castada who placed 2^nd in the PostDoc category and to Yuehan Ai who placed 3^rd in the PhD category of the poster competition. Also participating was Gary Closs Jr, Megan Hoehn, Yuko Nishikawa, Fenfen Tang, and Po-Wei Yeh.
• The Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development (AIARD) awarded Katie Williamson a partial scholarship and “Future Leader” spot to attend the AIARD annual conference and Future Leaders Forum (FLF) this June.
• We are pleased to welcome the new 2019/20 FST Peer Mentors - Maddy Fomich, Allison Miller, Meegan Gould, Lydia Tantalo and Shannon McMahon. They will be joining returning Mentors Phillip Eberly, Kelly Deatherage, Caleb Metzcar, Jenna Fryer and Jessica Callahan. Our FST Peer Mentor Program was the first in the college and pairs upper-class students with new first-year and transfer students to assist them with their transition to OSU.
• Congratulations to the following students who successfully completed the FoodSURE program this spring: Gabe Hutchings, Jack Gothier, Stiphany Tieu, Robin Bodner, Wan Xin Tan, Kelly Pan, Morgan Vasas, Kuanrong Zhu, Jess Ang, and Kevin Berkowitz.
• The AG and Science Communicators Club Citation Needed recently held their elections for the 2019-2020 school year. Congratulations to the following students:
  President – Jenna Fryer
  Vice President – James Chung
  Treasurer – Terrence Dent
  Secretary – Nicole Straathof
  CFAES Council Rep – Danica Berry
  Social Media – Abbie Sommer
  Events Chairs – Mackenzie Hannum, Jenna Miller, Nick Untch
• The Department of Food Science and Technology has partnered with the Ohio Valley section of the Institute of Food Technologists to create a Student-Industry Mentorship Program. This program will offer both graduate and undergraduate students in our department an opportunity to be paired with mentors who are professionals involved with the food industry. The program is focused on career and industry professional development. We encourage you to check out the program and if interested, consider participating. Information about the program along with links to the student and industry professional applications can be found on our website.
• This month we welcomed Ann Ford to the department as a Fiscal Associate in the front office.
• Are you planning to attend the IFT Annual Meeting in June? Do not forget to purchase your ticket to the department’s annual OSU at IFT reception. The reception will be held on Monday, June 3rd 6:30-8:00 p.m. in Gallerie 5 at the New Orleans Marriott. This is a ticketed event and the cost of the ticket is $50.00. If you have already registered and just want to purchase a reception ticket only, you can purchase it by selecting the “Social Events” option in the Attendee Registration and Housing Links box on the home page of the registration site. You can also call registration customer service at 800.462.9440 to have tickets added to your existing registration. Also, be sure to stop by our booth at the Expo – we are booth #3931.

Upcoming Events
May 3               FST Spring Graduation Party
2:30 – 3:30 pm Parker Food Science Lobby
May 16-17           Introduction to HACCP Principles for Meat Poultry Processors
Registration and more information
May 22              CIFT Roundtable at OSU FST
June 3              FST Networking Reception at IFT
6:30-8:00 Gallerie 5 @ New Orleans Marriott
July 18-19          Introduction to Process Control for Meat and Poultry Processors
Registration and more information
September 18-19     Advanced HACCP for Meat and Poultry Processors
Registration and more information