Graduate student Hongchao Zhang has won first place in the 2015 Boyd-Scott Graduate Research Award competition of American Society of Agriculture and Biological Engineer (ASABE) Annual International Meeting, July 26-29, New Orleans.
Hongchao is a third year Ph. D. student, working with his advisor Dr. Shyam S. Sablani, professor of Biological Systems Engineering, on the research of Food Packaging.
Hongchao’s research focuses on developing high barrier polymeric food packages for advanced thermal food processing technologies, mainly microwave-assisted thermal sterilization processing. This research holds the potential of developing high quality sterilized foods with shelf life of 1-3 years or even longer, that not only for retail but also for military and NASA’s long-duration space missions. The project is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Control of Food-borne bacterial and viral pathogens using microwave technology.” His committee members also include Dr. Juming Tang and Dr. Barbara Rasco.
Hongchao’s presentation in this competition was “Quality Changes in High Barrier Polymeric Packages – A Shelf-Life Study for Microwave Assisted Thermally Sterilized Food”. The placements for the Ph.D. and M.S. competitions was announced and awarded by P-122 Boyd-Scott Graduate Research Award Committee chair, Dr. Kaushlendra Singh, and competition sponsor Dr. Norm Scott from Cornell University during awards luncheon hold at July 29, New Orleans Hotel Marriot. Second and third place honors went to students from Ohio State University and University of Nebraska.