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Diane M. Barrett, Ph.D. Co-operative Extension Specialist

Research Group

 Who We Are:

 Diane M. Barrett, Ph.D.
 
About Diane

Dr. Gordon Anthon, Project Scientist
Background: Plant physiology & plant biochemistry
Started in lab: 1999
Method Development
Enzyme activation/inactivation kinetics

 Sam Matoba, Ph.D., Research Associate, T4 Project

Funded by California League of Food Processors for past ~25 years.  Supervises T4 project ~4 months/year.
Manages crew of 4-6 undergraduates.
Works with ~9 farm advisors to schedule harvests.
Analysis of pH, T.A., SS, color, peelability & lycopene on ~600 tomato samples.
Conducts all harvests & assembles all data; distributes CDs to industry.

Tomato Analysis Procedure Manual

Suvaluk Asavasanti, Ph.D. Candidate, Biological Systems Engineering

Joined Barrett lab in 2005
2002 - B.Eng. (Food Engineering), Kasetsart University, Thailand.
2004 - M.Eng. (Food Engineering), Kings Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand.
Suvaluk is developing a pulsed electric field treatment system for solid food samples and studying effects of pulsed electric field treatment on changes in onion cell membrane integrity and potential of creating reversible pores in plant membrane.
Thesis title - "Potential of Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) to Form Reversible Cell Membrane Nanopores in a Model Food Tissue"
Thesis Committee - Pieter Stroeve, Diane Barrett.  Funding: Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand

 

 Panita Ngamchuachit, Ph.D. Student

 Joined Barrett lab in 2007. 
2005 -  Bachelor of Science, Food Technology department, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,Thailand.  She is working on the effect of quarantine treatment on whole mango fruit quality.  Also rheological changes during the tomato juice concentration process and during stored paste rehydration.

 

Jennifer Shiu, MS Student

Joined Barrett Lab in September, 2008
Rice University - BS in Biochemistry
Jen is working on linking instrumental and sensory analyses of fresh watermelon texture. 
Funding:  Syngenta Produce Quality Fellowship

 

Rebeka Davis, MS Student

Joined Barrett Lab in September, 2008
Colorado State University: BS in Biology
Rebeka is working on comparing enzyme inactivation and quality of tomato pastes made with three different advanced processing techniques (microwave, pressure, and ohmic) to determine if we can improve the quality of tomato products by introducing new processing methods.  She is from Carmel, CA.
 

Megan Clements, Ph.D Student

Joined Barrett Lab in April, 2009. 
Northeastern University: BS in Biology
Megan is examining the effects of pre-harvest stressors and post-harvest treatments on the quality and stability of almonds. Her current work focuses on determining the cause of skin slippage at the testa-kernel interface, and how to predict and/or prevent it.
Funding: Almond Board of California