Our Current Students

Julia Adornetto
juliaa7@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Lahne

Julia completed her master’s degree in spring 2026 and will continue in the Ph.D. program beginning in the fall. Her work focuses on research and development in product development, where she is interested in creating and improving innovative food products.

Valeria Araujo
valeriaa@vt.edu
Degree Sought: M.S. LFS
Advisor: Dr. Stewart

Valeria joined in Fall 2025 with the goal of developing skills to innovate in food processing and fruit chemistry, aiming to improve food quality in ways that benefit local growers.

Angelica Bello Agama
angbellag@vt.edu
Degree Sought: M.S. LFS
Advisor: Dr. Cladis

Angelica seeks to study how food composition and processing affect health and sustainability, with a goal of working in food‑industry reserch and development.  

Molly Caron
mollyecaron@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Cladis

Molly completed her master’s degree in spring 2026 and is continuing in the Ph.D. program. Her research interests focus on functional foods. Looking ahead, Molly’s long term goal is to pursue a career in academia and become a professor.

Olivia Chase
oliviac00@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Hamilton

Olivia joined FST in Fall 2025. Olivia’s area of interest is related to food microbiology and food safety. She seeks to study L. monocytogenes' prevalence and persistence throughout our food systems, the possible role of non-pathogenic organisms in inhibiting pathogen growth, and how to provide safe food in multiple scales of production.

Sirui Chen
sirui122@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Huang

Sirui joined the department in Fall 2025. She has a passion for sustainability and innovation in food processing. Her research focuses on developing integrated bioprocessing technologies to transform food processing byproducts into valuable products.

Hyan Choi
choi1695@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Y. Cheng

Hyun is a third-year Ph.D. student whose research focuses on surface engineering to prevent biofilm formation in both clinical and food industry settings.

Bhaswati Chowdhury 
bhaswatic@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. R. Cheng

Bhaswati is a graduate teaching assistant who started her Ph.D. journey in Fall 2023, and she is expected to complete it in 2026. Her areas of interest include food safety and microbiology, and she aspires to be a prominent researcher in the field of food safety.

Caroline Clark 
eclark22@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: L. Strawn

Caroline joined FST in Fall 2025 with a research focus in microbial food safety. She hopes to pursue a career in either food safety education or regulatory science to improve food safety practices and protect public health. 

Huida Duan
huilda@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Y. Cheng

Huida Duan joined the FST graduate program in Fall 2024. His research focuses on intelligent food packaging and active food contact surfaces—developing polymer-based sensing films to monitor spoilage and creating enzyme-immobilized surfaces to enhance food processing.

Rakib Ehsan
rakib@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. R. Cheng

Rakib began his doctoral journey at VT in Fall 2023 seeking an interdisciplinary educational experience related to bacterial genetics and genomics in the context of host-bacteria-environment interactions. Rakib’s long term career goal involves conducting research in his own lab.

Leah Ellis
leahe23@vt.edu
Degree Sought: M.S. LFS
Advisor: Dr. Cladis

Leah joined the department in Fall 2025 in order to pursue interests related to food chemistry, particularly related to functional foods, phytochemicals, and the application of food science to clinical nutrition.

Babak Faraji Gougerdchi
babakfaraji@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Y. Cheng

Babak joined FST in Fall 2023 with the goal of gaining skills and experience necessary to eventually become a distinguished faculty member at an university and help educate and promote food safety and quality to the next generation of learners.

Diego Fredes-Garcia
diegofredes@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. R. Cheng

Diego started with the FST graduate program in Fall 2024. Diego has a strong interest in microbial food safety. Diego wishes to explore innovative approaches to molecular detection, genomics, and phenotypic characterization.

Isabel Gutierrez
isabelg@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Yin

Isabel joined FST’s graduate program to pursue her interest in chemistry, particularly aroma and flavor compounds in food systems. She would love a career as a flavorist, where she hopes to lead research teams.

Emma Hockman
eehockman@vt.edu
Degree Sought: M.S. LFS
Advisor: Dr. Hamilton

Emma entered as a graduate student in Fall 2024 with the primary interest of using microbiological research and safe food manufacturing principles to support producers. Emma would love a career as an advocate for the production of safe and wholesome foods.

Imam Hossain
imam25@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Dong

Imam joined FST in Spring 2026. Imam’s area of focus is food safety and public health, focusing on seafood, pathogens, andantimicrobial resistance. His goal is an academic career advancing microbial genomics.

Shuo Jiang
shuoj99@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisors: Dr. Huang and Dr. Kuhn

Shuo joined the FST graduate community in Spring 2025 with a goal of advancing innovative processing techniques and achieving resource sustainability. Her future aspiration is to be an outstanding food science professor.

Tuan Le
lehoangtuan12312@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisors: Dr. Eifert and Dr. Strawn

Tuan began with the FST graduate program in Fall 2022, and his areas of interest include food safety, food processing, and education. Tuan would love to help ensure a quality, safe food supply through processing innovations.

Mohon Li
mli23@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Ponder

With a passion for food safety, Mohan joined in Fall 2024 with an aspiration to make accurate tools to predict the quantitative dynamics of microbial behavior in foods. Mohan envisions a future where industry and academia intersect.

Rachel Nimitz
racheln@vt.edu
Degree Sought: M.S. LFS
Advisors: Dr. O'Keefe and Dr. Hurley

Rachel began in Fall 2024 with interests in food chemistry and food safety, with career interests related to quality assurance and research and development.

Monica Osorio Barahona
monicaosorio@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Strawn

Monica joined the Food Science and Technology program in fall 2023, completed her master’s degree in 2025, and is continuing in the Ph.D. program. Her interests include produce safety research, and she hopes to pursue a career in this area in the future.

Taylor Peele
tpeele1@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D. 
Advisor: Dr. O'Keefe

Taylor would love to work in the food industry in product development or food application (technical services).

Jason Pough
jasondp@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D. 
Advisor: Dr. Kuhn 

Jason’s research is on taking brewer's spent byproduct and converting it from a low-value waste to a high-value feed additive for farmed fish in the aquaculture sector. He also has experience with microbiome analysis, as his work looks at the shifting intestinal microbiome of trout.

Ann Sandbrook
amdicken@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Y. Cheng

Ann has been an employee of FST since 2011 with a background in nutrition, fermentation, and food chemistry.  She is starting her doctoral journey in Spring 2026 to strengthen her knowledge and support in food packaging.

Madhvi Singh
madhvisinghe66@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. O'Keefe

Madhvi started in Fall 2023. Her dream job would be to either work in government organization or start her own company.

Theeratart (Dj) Sukthavorn
tsukthavorn@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Non-thesis master's 
Advisor: Dr. Hamilton

Dj started his graduate student journey with FST in Fall 2024. He would like to work as a food safety consultant for private companies.

Olivia Vowell
vowello@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Stewart

Driven by a passion for studying the science of food and nutrition with a goal of becoming a teaching professor, Olivia entered FST as a graduate student in Fall 2024 and completed her master's degree in Spring 2026. She is continuing her studies in the Ph.D. program in the fall of 2026.

Chrissy Walsky
cmwalsky19@vt.edu
Degree Sought: M.S. LFS
Advisor: Dr. Hamilton

Chrissy started as a graduate student in Spring 2025 after working as a food microbiology and safety lab technician. That experience led her to continue her education in order to pursue a career in food safety.

Wangyi Wei
wwangyi@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisors: Dr. Yin and Dr. Ponder

Wangyi joined FST in 2024 to hone skills needed to meet his career goal of being a food scientist who develops innovative techniques to benefit the food industry.

Ruoshi Xiao
rosexiao@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Huang

Ruoshi’s research focuses on plant-based protein extraction and functionality, with an emphasis on brewer’s spent grain. She aims to develop sustainable approaches to improve protein yield and applications in food systems.

Jung Mun (Journey) Yang 
journeyg@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Huang

Journey’s research focuses on the valorization of food byproducts into value-added products, with a specific emphasis on converting brewer’s spent grain (BSG) into insoluble dietary fiber that supports gut health. Driven by a strong interest in sustainability and circular food systems, her long-term career goal is to work in an organization that expands the impact of sustainable food science further.

Saehah Yi
shyi@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Ponder

Saehah started the FST graduate program in Fall 2023. She has a strong interest in antimicrobial resistance and microbial interactions in food and environmental systems within a One Health framework. She hopes to pursue an academic career in food microbiology and public health.

Fujunzhu Zhao
fzhao179@vt.edu
Degree Sought: Ph.D.
Advisor: Dr. Huang

Fujunzhu is driven to make a positive impact by advancing the development of biodegradable plastics. She is passionate about addressing global sustainability challenges by contributing to scalable, cost-effective production methods for biodegradable alternatives, helping reduce reliance on petroleum-based plastics through research.

Dr. Abdullah Al Wahaimed 
Degree Earned: Ph.D 
Fall 2025
Advisor: Dr. Eifert

Abdullah entered the program in 2020 and successfully defended his dissertation in December 2025. He graduated shortly thereafter. His research focused on risk assessment of selected veterinary drug residues in cattle, as well as developing strategies to enhance drug residue sampling plans.

Following graduation, Abdullah returned to Saudi Arabia to begin his role as an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine at King Faisal University.

Ellen Gabriel
Degree Earned:  M.S. of Life Sciences in Food Science
Spring 2026
Advisor: Dr. Strawn

Ellen joined the department in fall 2024 with a strong interest in food safety. She is passionate about promoting public health through safe food practices. Following her Spring 2026 graduation, she will spend the summer working as a food microbiology intern with a major food corporation.

Elissa Hall
Degree Earned: M.S. of Life Sciences in Food Science
Spring 2026
Advisors: Dr. Lahne and Dr. Carneiro

Elissa joined the graduate program in Fall 2024. Elissa is an aspiring professor with a desire to “shape the academic landscape by conducting impactful research” and to serve as a mentor as well as a teacher of students.

Muheng Li
Degree Earned: M.S. of Life Sciences in Food Science
Spring 2026
Advisors: Dr. Cladis and Dr. Ponder

Muheng began in Fall 2024 focusing on the phenolic analysis of Virginia red wine, and building a comprehensive database of phenolic compounds in Virginia red wines, linking grape variety, vineyard, and vintage to wine quality and winemaking practices.

Dacia Ringo 
Degree Earned: M.S. of Life Sciences in Food Science
Spring 2026
Advisors: Dr. Huang and Dr. Ponder

Dacia joined as a graduate student in Fall 2024 to concentrate on Food Microbiology and Food Safety. Specifically Dacia wants to study foodborne pathogens including cross-contamination, microbial spoilage, and food processing in order to have an impactful future career.

Dr. Zhiyuan (Zane) Xu 
Degree Earned: Ph.D.
Spring 2026
Advisor: Dr. Huang

Zane began the program in fall 2022 with the goal of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a professor in food science. One of his primary areas of interest is the conversion of food waste into value added chemicals through fermentation. His thesis, Advancing Food Safety and Public Health through Visible Light Responsive Antimicrobial Materials, reflects his focus on innovative approaches to food safety.

Following graduation, Zane will begin a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Davis, in summer 2026.

Other Spring 2026 graduates include the following students, who will be advancing into our Ph.D. program and are highlighted above in the current student section:

• Julia Adornetto
• Molly Caron
• Olivia Vowell