Dr. Vijay K. Juneja

Dr.  Vijay K. Juneja is a Lead Scientist of the ‘Predictive Microbiology’ research project at the Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Wyndmoor, PA. 

He received his PhD in Food Technology and Science from the University of Tennessee.  Dr. Juneja is among the world’s leading authorities in food safety research.  He has developed a nationally and internationally recognised research programme on foodborne pathogens, with emphasis on microbiological safety of minimally processed foods and predictive microbiology. 

Dr. Juneja frequently organizes educational workshops on microbial modelling, specifically on the use of ARS Pathogen Modelling Program.  His research programme has been highly productive, generating over 300 publications, including over 140 peer-reviewed journal articles, nine books, 45 book chapters including 8 in the Encyclopedia of Food/Meat Microbiology.  He served as a co-editor of International Journal of Food Microbiology until December 2011 and as an Associate Editor for the ‘Food Microbiology Section’, of the Journal of Food Science from 2002 - 2007.  Currently, he serves as co-editor of ‘LWT-Food Science and Technology’ and is a member of the editorial Boards of Journal of Food Protection, Foodborne Pathogens & Disease and International Journal of Food Microbiology. 

Dr. Juneja is recipient of several awards including the IAFP GMA Food Safety Award (2013), Gold Medalist for ‘Outstanding Mentor/Coach’, Federal Executive Board, Philadelphia (2013); IFT Research and Development Award (2012); National Science Foundation (NSF) Food Safety Leadership Award for Research Advances (2012); IAFP Maurice Weber Laboratorian Award (2005); ARS-NAA Senior Research Scientist of the year (2002); ARS-NAA Early Career Research Scientist of the year (1998). He is a Fellow of the IFT (2008), and American Academy of Microbiology (2013).

Website: http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/people/people.htm?personid=2921

Dr. Ursula Gonzales-Barron

Dr. Ursula Gonzales-Barron, a Peruvian-Irish national, pursued PhD studies at the Biosystems Engineering Department of University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland (2006), through the award of the prestigious Irish Walsh Fellowship.

After spending few months as a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Chemical Engineering in the University of Manchester, UK (2005), she took on the positions of Lead Researcher (2005-2007) and later on Senior Researcher (2007-2012) at UCD Biosystems Engineering, Ireland.

Her expertise resides in diverse areas of food safety and quality modelling, including microbial risk assessment and predictive microbiology. Some of her major achievements are:

• a novel approach to characterise the physical clustering of microbes and to represent low microbial counts in foods;
• the development of a Bayesian theory to derive microbial sampling plans and control charts for food industries by ‘jointly’ modelling between-batch and within-batch variability’;
• the introduction of meta-analysis to summarise food safety information in order to develop better estimates for use in risk management measures; among others.

In 2013, she was awarded a highly-competitive 5-year Development Career Fellowship by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), to carry out food safety research at the CIMO Mountain Research Centre of the Polytechnic Institute of Braganza (IPB) in Portugal.

Currently, she is involved in collaborative research with Wageningen University, the US Department of Agriculture; the University of Sao Paulo and the University of Campinas.

Dr. Gonzales-Barron has supervised over 12 postgraduate students; has published 45 peer-reviewed articles and 8 book chapters; has presented her research findings at over 40 international conferences, and has been in receipt of 7 grants from European competitive calls.

Website: http://cimo.esa.ipb.pt/CV/ursula/

Prof. Vasco Cadavez

Dr. Vasco Cadavez obtained his first degree in Animal Husbandry Engineering in 1993 and his Masters degree in Animal Production with specialisation in Feed and Nutrition in 1998 at the Portuguese University of Trás-Os-Montes e Alto Douro. After a novel research on carcass composition and quality using ultrasound, he obtained his PhD degree in 2004.

He is currently a Professor at the Animal Science Department of the Polytechnic Institute of Braganza (IPB). He is also an active research member of the Food Safety and Technology Group at the CIMO Mountain Research Centre, based at IPB.

Dr. Cadavez developed expertise in a wide range of mathematical and statistical modelling techniques. He has wide experience in robust, logistic and multiple regression analyses; multivariate analysis including factor analysis, cluster analysis and classification techniques, which have been applied for animal production and genetics.  He has also expertise in general linear models, count data and zero-inflated models, linear and non-linear mixed models and meta-analysis in the fields of animal science, agriculture and food safety. Among mathematical modelling techniques, he has expertise in differential equations, dynamic modelling and optimisation. Dr. Cadavez is very knowledgeable in computer programming, and specifically the use of the R software and SQL processing, which he teaches at undergraduate level and workshops. Some of his current research interests are the applications of Monte Carlo simulation, Bayesian statistics, meta-analysis, dynamic modelling and acceptance sampling theory in food safety and predictive microbiology.

He has supervised 12 postgraduate students, has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, has authored/edited 2 books, has written 10 book chapters, has presented at over 50 international conferences, and has given a number of workshops of statistical methods using the R software.

Website: http://esa.ipb.pt/~vcadavez/