I manage the Post-Harvest Engineering and Education research lab, focusing on post-harvest treatment technologies and engineering eduction. My research mission is to identify post-harvest treatment technologies capable of transforming lignin into value added chemicals. This research also provides new knowledge on the role of ozone and atmospheric cold plasma treatments for the reduction of spoilage organisms during post-harvest processing and storage. Research is currently being conducted with a variety of commodities including, stored grains (i.e., corn, rice), oil seeds and byproducts (i.e., cottonseed, cottonseed meal), and packaged produce (i.e., tomatoes and romaine lettuce).
I also work to develop teaching materials for those who utilize new treatment and storage technologies, so they feel more connected with the technologies thereby increasing the instances of utilization.