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Dr. Schaffner's Lab
Faculty |
Staff |
Graduate Students |
Undergraduate Students
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Former
Lab Members
Kristin Jackson - Editorial
Assistant and Technician
I have been working for Dr. Schaffner since May
1999. I started out as the technician on a
hand-washing project, and have since taken over
managing the lab’s two databases and the
secretarial duties. I also edit and proof read
all manuscripts that are generated in the lab.
I am now the lead technician on the Dining
Services Food Microbiology Risk Reduction
Project, and also manage a new hand-washing
project.
Silvia Dominguez - Graduate Student: I
am originally from Peru and joined Dr. Schaffner’s
lab in September 2004. I got my M.S. degree in 2006
with a poultry spoilage project, specifically
developing a model for Pseudomonas spp. growth on
raw poultry over a variety of temperatures. I am
currently a PhD candidate and the senior student in
the lab, which involves a lot of responsibilities.
My research now is related to the growth of
Salmonella spp. in raw poultry and includes modeling
and risk assessment stages. I really enjoy being a
part of this lab!
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| Karla Mendoza-Morales - Graduate Student:
I started working in Dr. Schaffner’s Lab in May
2004. My research project is focused on the
validation of existing mathematical models to
predict the growth of Clostridium botulinum in
ground beef. Working with such pathogenic
microorganism hasn’t been easy since it is a strict
anaerobe, spore-forming, and capable to produce the
most potent neurotoxin but luckily we have the
appropriate facilities and equipment to handle it.
It has been definitely a great learning experience
throughout all these years. |
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Wenjing Pan - Graduate Student: I joined
Dr Schaffner’s lab in April, 2007. I am a Chinese
graduate student from Molecular Biosciences Program.
I will be working on the dining hall services and
the growth model of Salmonella in cut tomato in the
future. Although I do not have enough background in
food science, I am very interested in the lab
research and happy to be a lab member. |
picture
coming
soon |
Di Li
Graduate Student
Alyssa Cocchiara - Undergraduate Student:
I began working in Dr. Schaffner's Lab
in the spring 2007 semester. I was
introduced to the lab by the Douglass
Project class, Introduction to Scientific
Research. Throughout the semester I
investigated the holding time and
temperatures effect on the microbial quality
of dining hall waffle batter. I am very
grateful that Dr. Schaffner has given me an
opportunity to learn hands-on about
microbiology and work one-on-one with such
great graduate students to design my
experiments.
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David Sworkin - Undergraduate Student:
I'm currently a rising sophomore here at
Cook College, majoring in Food Science Research and
on the pre-medicine track. I've had an amazing first
year and made a lot of new friends here at Rutgers,
and I'm excited to experience in Dr. Schaffner's lab
what food science research is really like. I'm
currently working helping on a project with Alyssa
and Mansi to test the rates of bacterial growth in
the dining halls' waffle batter at different
temperatures and different stages of preparation. I
enjoy working in this lab and I hope to continue
during the Fall 2007 semester. |
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| Mansi Shah - Undergraduate
Student: I was introduced to Dr. Schaffner’s
research through participating in a research
mixture. In the lab, I am involved with testing the
micro bacterial activity of the dinning hall waffle
batter at various temperatures and holding times. I
want to thank Dr. Schaffner for giving me this
opportunity to learn and gain valuable hands on
experience. I also want to thank all the graduate
students and the staff members for helping me in
developing my experiments. In future, I hope to use
the skills gained through working at this lab to
create my own experiments and further explore the
field of microbiology. |
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