We are pleased to welcome our newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Dr. Luxin Wang.
Luxin Wang was born and raised in China. Right after finishing her B.S. degree in 2004, she came to the U.S. to pursue her graduate degrees in the same year. Her first stop was the University of Missouri-Columbia. She spent five year there and obtained a M.S. in Food Science in 2006, a M.S. degree in Biological Engineering in 2009 (advisor: Dr. Sherman Fan), and a Ph.D. degree in Food Science in 2009 (advisor: Dr. Azlin Mustapha). Her graduate research focused on developing rapid detection technologies for foodborne pathogens. She developed multiple molecular based protocols to differentiate and detect live pathogens. With her M.S. degree in nanotechnology, she incorporated the use of surface-modified nanoparticles in the pathogen isolation step so that both the detection efficiency and accuracy were enhanced. In 2009, Dr. Wang was awarded the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Fellowship by the FDA and joined the Western Center for Food Safety at Davis California. Her mentor was Dr. Linda J. Harris.
In 2010, Dr. Wang joined the Department of Food Science and Technology as a postdoctoral research associate working for Dr. Linda J. Harris. During her time at Davis, she participated in several research projects focusing on the microbial safety of fresh produce and nuts. One of her projects was to investigate the survival mechanisms of Salmonella in low-moisture foods.
Dr. Wang joined Auburn University in January 2012 as a tenure-track assistant professor working for the Department of Animal Sciences. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Auburn University in February 2017. Her research at Auburn University focused on the microbial safety of animal and aquaculture products. Her research was supported by both the government agencies and the industry organizations. At Auburn University, Dr. Wang taught four courses “Microbiology of Meats and other Foods”, “Application of Molecular Microbiology in Food Safety”, “Sensory Evaluation”, and the microbiology part of the “Introduction to Meat Science”. She has finished one Ph.D. and seven M.S. students as the major advisor and has finished 21 Ph.D. and nine M.S. students as their committee member. She has mentored two postdoctoral scholars and hosted many international visiting scholars and students in her lab, and she always enjoys her interaction with undergraduate students. She mentored approximately 30 undergraduate students every semester when she was at Auburn University and was the junior (2016) and the senior (2017) faculty advisor for the Ag Ambassador group. In 2016, she led a study abroad trip to China and took 20 students to Beijing. During the trip, students visited different agricultural areas and several food industries in China. She is currently mentoring two Ph.D. students as their major professor, one Ph.D. and two M.S. students as their committee member. Dr. Wang is a lead trainer for the “Preventive Controls for Human Food” program and the “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points” program. She is also a trainer for the “Produce Safety Rule”.
In March 2018, Dr. Wang came back to UC Davis. She started her work as an Assistant Professor for the Department of Food Science and Technology. She's excited and humbled about this new career opportunity at UC Davis. Her research projects will focus more on fresh fruit and vegetables and will continue to apply both conventional microbiological technologies and new precision approaches, such as comparative genomics and metagenomics, to advance the understanding of the genetic and environmental factors impacting the survival and dissemination of foodborne pathogens. In this Spring quarter, she is teaching FST109 “Principals of Quality Assurance in Food Processing”. She has 89 students in her class and she loves the discussions and conversations she has with every student.
Welcome back Dr. Wang!