Director’s Statement:

_______________________________________________________ 

This is an exciting and energizing time at the Whistler Center with new members, faculty and staff, grants, and advances in research. 

We are very pleased to welcome three new companies into the Whistler Center: Abbott Nutrition, ConAgra Foods, and General Mills.

In other announcements, Dr. Brad Reuhs was awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.  I, with collaborators at the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue and a human testing lab at Ohio University, have received an integrated USDA-NRI competitive grant “Functional Foods Containing Novel Carbohydrates for Energy Balance and Improved Health” that began January 1, 2008.  Other USDA-NRI grants received by Whistler faculty include Lisa Mauer’s "Fundamentals, Effects and Consequences of Deliquescence in Multicomponent Food Systems", Jim BeMiller’s "Bridging the Gap Between starch granule architecture, molecular structure, and reactivity", Osvaldo Campanella and Bruce Hamaker’s “A Soluble Nanoscale Self-assembling Complex from Starch, Protein, and Lipid for Healthy Nutrient Delivery”.  In the analytical area, the Center has hired Anton Terekhov as Analytical Chemist.  Anton works with Dr. Reuhs and others principally on carbohydrate structural analysis with expertise in GC-MS, MALDI, and NMR spectroscopy.  Equipment-wise, we are awaiting delivery of a NIR spectrometer for Cliff Weil and Lisa Mauer, and two rheometers were donated from Tate and Lyle.  At our Whistler Center retreat, we identified other equipment needs and are moving towards a funding package to buy a particle size analyzer, DMTA, rheometer, and MALS-RI system.  Additionally, we are working towards putting a larger NMR facility together for state-of-the-art carbohydrate structural analysis work.  In addition to strengthening our research capabilities, these equipments, we believe, will put us in a stronger position for larger Center grants.