Food Science, Safety, and Forensic Poisoning Expert

Expertise

• Food Science and Technology
• Food Safety
• Food Poisoning
• Natural Ingredient Claims
• Fermentation
• Antimicrobials
• Probiotics
• Botulism
• Anthrax
• Spores
• Spoilage
• Listeria monocytogenes

Expert Witness Experience

Consultant and Expert Witness, various major food companies and law firms

• Natural Ingredient Claims - furnished opinions in eight cases as defendant's expert for major food companies affirming that food ingredients such as citric acid, high fructose corn syrup, gelatin, xanthan gum, etc. are natural.
• Intellectual Property - provided opinion and testified at trail as plaintiff's expert that the defendant stole trade secrets of the plaintiff's proprietary fermentation process.
• Food Poisoning - provided opinion and was deposed as plaintiff's expert that a food processor and retail outlet contributed to an outbreak of food poisoning.
• Regulatory - provided opinion and deposition as plaintiff's expert that there was no valid scientific reason for the State of Wisconsin to prohibit the sale of home baked foods.

Experience

Undisclosed University, Distinguished Professor, Department of Food Science 1984 - Present
Professor of Food Science, 1991-1998
Associate Professor of Food Science, 1984 - 1991

• Educator - Engaged with students with no scientific background to introduce, in simple terms, the complex chemical, biological and engineering principles that are the foundation of modern food science.
• Led students from different disciplinary backgrounds to work in groups that critically examined controversial topics in food, health and nutrition.
• Mentor and guided 16 Ph.D. and 23 M.S. students to the successful completion of their degree. Navigated the tenure and promotion process for faculty.
• Scientist - Identified problem areas in food preservation, food safety, and biosecurity; obtained resources; project administration; orchestrated the conduct of the research; communicated results to scientific and lay audiences.
• Leader - As Director of the Graduate Program in Food Science, and Chair of the Department, defined the mission and its implementation by 20 faculty members and more than 150 students; revised curriculum; introduced novel teaching technologies; was the public face of the Department to the public and higher administration.

Professional Activities and Academia

Universidad Technologica de la Mixteca, Huajuapan de Le Oaxaca, Mexico, 2012 - 2016

• Professor-Investigador Extraordinario, International Visiting Professor

Food and Nutrition Press, Trumball, CT, 1993 - 2003

• Editor of the Journal of Food Safety
• Evaluated paper in all areas concerning food poisoning and food safety to determine their scientific validity and suitability for publication.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Washington, DC, 1997 - 2002

• As member (Special Government Employee) of their Food Advisor Committee guided the FDA in developing regulations on "hot topics" such as the definition of probiotics, mercury in fish, and regulatory limit for a naturally occurring carcinogen.

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 1991 - 2015

• Member, the Joint Graduate Program in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Journal of Food Safety, Food and Nutrition Press, Trumbull, CT, 1993 - 2003

• Serving as Editor and Co-Editor

U.S. Department of Agriculture-ARS, Intramural Food Safety National Program, 2010

• Chair, Review Panel - Molecular Biology

U.S. Department of Agriculture-CSRS NRI, Washington, DC, 1992 - 1993

• Panel Manager; Competitive Grants Program in Food Safety

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Philadelphia, PA, 1982 - 1984

• Research Microbiologist, Eastern Regional Research Center

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 1975 - 1980

• Research Staff, Department of Nutrition and Food Science

Honors & Publications

Credentials

• Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology - F.A.A.M
• Fellow, Institute of Food Technologists - F.I.F.T.

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• American Academy of Microbiology
• Institute of Food Technologists
• American Society for Microbiology
• International Association for Food Protection
• Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology
• Fellow, Institute of Food Technologists
• U.S. and Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD)
• Awards Commission of the XXIII Brazilian Congress of Microbiology Institute of Food
• Institute of Food Technologists, Annual Meeting Symposium Review Committee
• National Institutes of Health, SBIR Study Section Member
• American Academy of Microbiology, Nominating Committee
• McGraff Lectureship, Long Island University
• Interagency Botulism Research Coordinating Committee
• External Evaluator for Tenure and Promotion at the Ohio State University,
• Ad hoc reviewer for PNAS, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Awards

• President's Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), conferred by the International Association for Food Protection.
• Bernard L. Oser Award for Food Ingredients Safety, conferred by the Institute of Food Technologists.
• The Professor Endel Karmas Teaching Award

Publications and Patents

Author and Co-Author

• Food Microbiology - College Text books (and chapters), widely-adopted with four editions and translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Korean.
• More than 100 peer-reviewed publications that have been sited 6,000 times.
• Over 50 invited lectures in the U.S. and internationally.

Inventor

• U.S. patent-growth of bacteria

Education

• Ph.D. Food Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
• B.S. Food Science (High Honors), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ