Regina O’Brien and Neeta Yousaf, doctoral candidates in food science in the School of Graduate Studies, both won important fellowships to support their research.
O’Brien received the North East -Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) Graduate Student Fellowship Award of $15,000 for the project, “Increasing consumer acceptance of baby leafy greens grown in a controlled environment.” This project is a partnership between Rutgers and AeroFarms LLC, Newark, NJ, and builds on preliminary findings from a previous 3-yr grant with AeroFarms that was funded by the Foundation for Agricultural Research. The objective of the program is to determine the effects of plant stressors on the taste and nutritional quality of baby leafy greens grown in a vertical indoor farm.
Yousaf received the Rose Marie Pangborn Sensory Sciences Fellowship Award for 2019. The highest prize awarded annually by the Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division of the Institute of Food Technologists, the $15,000 fellowship provides funds for research and travel to scientific meetings to report research findings.
