Following a thorough selection process, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has named Renee Boyer as the interim head of Virginia Tech’s Department of Food Science and Technology. She formally assumed her new role on August 10. Boyer has been with the food science faculty as professor and extension specialist since earning her doctoral degree from the department in 2006, during which time she has led a variety of extension initiatives to bolster food safety awareness among food producers and consumers, published countless research publications on foodborne illness prevention, and mentored numerous food science students through their graduate educations.
Smoke. Coal dust. Fine leather. Dark berry fruit. Coffee grounds. These are just a few of the things that whiskey drinkers experience when taking a sip of their favorite spirit.
Describing whiskey has long been a difficult thing to pin down, which is why FST sensory researchers Jacob Lahne and Leah Hamilton and Virginia Tech Libraries data consultants Chreston Miller, and Michael Stamper have set out to create a tool to find a common language of whiskey words in a data set of 6,500 published whiskey reviews.
WFXR News spoke to Kat Phetxumphou about how the Sensory Evaluation Laboratory studies how consumers respond to the taste, smell, sight and feel of different foods, and how YOU can help them out by volunteering to taste delicious foods for science! Follow them @VTSensory on Facebook for new volunteer opportunities.
FST brewmeister Sean O'Keefe hosted a virtual happy hour hangout in June, and over 160 Hokies tuned in to learn all about the science of beer while enjoying their favorite brew. It may not be live, but you can still grab a pint and watch the lecture!
The ongoing pandemic made it impossible to host our traditional annual awards banquet this year, but our Foodies still deserve to have their accomplishments recognized, so we decided to move the awards announcements online! Check out our 2020 FST Awards site to see a special message from Dr. Joe Marcy, our student scholarship award winners, faculty/staff awards, alumni accomplishments, our class of 2020 and more. See our 2020 awardees
A little message to our class of 2020 graduate students from their advisors before graduation. It's been an honor working with you, and though we will miss you, we know the world will be a better place once you're out there in it, doing GREAT THINGS! You inspire us.
Are you a Foodie alum?
Join the VT Food Science Alumni Facebook group!
Learn to preserve your own food at home!
Preserving your own food means delicious meals and fewer trips to the grocery store! We're teaming up with Virginia Cooperative Extension to offer this self-paced online course that will teach you everything you need to know about home food preservation techniques such as canning, freezing, dehydration and fermentation, and the science behind them.
Click the flyer to register!
On Social Media
CALS Employee of the Year: Kim Waterman
Juneteenth: Celebrating Black American food scientists
Because of new technology and yeast strains, the gap between non-alcoholic and alcoholic beer is smaller than ever! Sean O'Keefe spoke to the The Roanoke Times about the rise of "near beer."
Alcohol Professor spoke to distillers, scientists and whiskey industry professionals about Jacob Lahne's recent research indicating people can't taste the difference between bourbon and rye whiskey based on the grain content and got some spirited reactions!
