Laura Strawn named Extension specialist and assistant professor of food science and technology
Laura Strawn has been named a specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension and assistant professor of food science and technology in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Strawn is one of eight new faculty members recently hired in the college. New positions were identified to bring new talent to its focus areas, including food and health, infectious disease, biodesign and processing, and agricultural profitability and environmental sustainability. The new faculty members are distributed across teaching, research, and Extension.
She received her bachelor's degree in food science and technology from the University of California-Davis, her master's degree and Ph.D. in food science from the University of Florida and Cornell, respectively.
Strawn’s research focuses on enhanced microbial safety of produce production at both the pre- and post-harvest level, subtyping of bacterial foodborne pathogens for source tracking and outbreak detection, and development of educational materials and trainings for producers, packers, and processors directed towards enhancing food safety of produce.
Recently Strawn's research on big data in food safety and quality was featured in the Institute of Food Technology's magazine.
Written by Amy Loeffler
