2025 F2OCUS Projects

Explore the potential F2OCUS research project areas for 2025 below along with example projects from previous years. Each project will involve at least one faculty mentor, and in some cases, two or more depending on the topic.

Visit our Faculty Mentors page to learn more about the mentors.

Food Chemistry and Functionality
Description: Conduct studies on chemical transformations of lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins; how these components are affected by specific production, processing, handling and storage techniques; and ways to either enhance or prevent these transformations from occurring.
Potential Mentors: Scott Lafontaine  Sun-Ok Lee
Renee Threlfall  Casey Owens
Example Projects:
  1. Investigate the flavor chemistry of value-added crops
  2. Explore aspects of enology and viticulture

Food Microbiology and Safety
Description: Development and application of advanced technologies to evaluate factors that impact the safety and quality of foods during production, harvest, processing, packaging, storage, distribution and final consumption.
Potential Mentors: Jennifer Acuff  Griffiths Atungulu
Kristen Gibson  Tomi Obe
Example Projects:
  1. Evaluate thermal interventions to inactivate foodborne pathogens in low moisture foods.
  2. Evaluate methods to control foodborne pathogens on surfaces.

Food Engineering and Processing
Description: Entails and integrates concepts of unit operations, food processing, food safety, and product development.
Potential Mentors: Griffiths Atungulu  Mahfuz Rahman
Ali Ubeyitogullari
Example Projects:
  1. Characterize the impact of postharvest processing and storage on specialty crops.
  2. Develop food inks made from sustainable protein sources for 3D printing of novel food products.

Food for Health
Description: Includes identifying specific nutrients and bioactive components, determining their optimal levels of intake for disease prevention, and translating these findings into dietary solutions.
Potential Mentors: Jamie Baum  Sun-Ok Lee
Renee Threlfall
Example Projects:
  1. Identify alternative protein sources for treatment and prevention of chronic disease.
  2. Determine the role of dietary phytochemicals in health and disease.