An Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences faculty member received the 2013 Excellence Award for Assistant Professors from the university in recognition of her outstanding research.

Assistant professor Michelle Danyluk, food science and human nutrition faculty member at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, was awarded for her work this past year on Salmonella and E. coli detection and dispersal.

Danyluk said she was “tremendously excited” to win the award.

“I’m extremely grateful to all the folks who have supported me as I’ve established my program at UF, and think the award recognizes not only me, but all those who have supported me – especially to the technical staff in my laboratory, my current and previous graduate students, county Extension faculty, the business office staff and the leadership at my center, department and IFAS levels.”

The 10 recipients of this year’s award will each receive a $5,000 grant to use toward their continued research. Danyluk said she hasn’t decided how to spend the grant, but said she’s considering spending toward updated computers for her graduate students or another truck for her team’s field work.

Her research interests include microbial food safety and quality, as well as developing standards for maintaining them in different storage and processing conditions. Her research focuses on fruits, vegetables and nuts and looks at how and why foodborne pathogens survive in production environments and the role environments play in food contamination.

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UF/IFAS photo of Michelle Danyluk by Tyler L. Jones

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