Grad student honored in research paper competition

 
Syamaladevi, right, with his doctoral research
advisor Shyam Sablani.
 
 
PULLMAN, Wash. – Doctoral student Roopesh Mohandas Syamaladevi, biological systems engineering, won second place in the refrigerated and frozen foods division of the Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT) 2011 Graduate Student Paper Award Competition. IFT is a leading international scientific society in food science, technology and engineering.
Syamaladevi’s poster “Glass transition influence on ice recrystallization in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) during frozen storage” was presented at the IFT annual meeting in June.
His research, under the supervision of assistant professor and scientist Shyam Sablani, probes molecular mobility and physicochemical degradation reactions in amorphous glassy food matrices during their long-term storage. Syamaladevi’s doctoral committee members include professors Juming Tang, Joseph Powers and Barry Swanson.
Syamaladevi completed his bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Kerala Agricultural University and his masters in post harvest engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, before starting his doctoral research at WSU in 2008.
 
He is a recipient of awards/scholarships including the IFT Foundation Feeding Tomorrow Graduate Scholarship, International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR) E-Journal prize, Puget Sound Institute of Food Technologists and IFT Refrigerated and Frozen Foods division travel awards.