Joshi named Innovation vice president; Getting to know Ziynet Boz

Allied Blending names Joshi VP of innovation

IFT member Nitin Joshi joined Allied Blending as vice president of innovation, quality, and technical services.

Nitin Joshi

Currently the chair of IFT’s Annual Meeting Scientific Program Advisory Panel for 2022, Joshi has more than 30 years of experience in the food industry, having led the development of pizzas, sauces, dips, soups, beverages, dairy products, cheeses, ice creams, snacks, and frozen products at companies such as Dairy Management, Pizza Hut, and Campbell Soup Co. His areas of expertise include ingredients innovation, product development, quality improvement, commercialization, and cost optimization.

Joshi, who has more than 45 publications to his credit, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Gujarat Agricultural University in India, where he later served as assistant professor, and received a doctorate from South Dakota State University, Brookings.

Roesler joins Empire Bakery

Natalie Roesler, past chair of IFT’s Alamo Section and a Food Science Ambassador, has been named vice president and general manager of Empire Bakery Commissary, a producer of ready-to-sell bakery desserts for traditional retailers.

Roesler most recently served as vice president of innovation at Surlean Foods, where she led R&D, commercialization, marketing, and continuous improvement across two manufacturing sites. Previously she was senior director of product development at Golden State Foods, where she was responsible for all product development functions for the liquid products North America division, including culinary, food science, commercialization, packaging innovation, and process improvement. Earlier, she held positions at Southeastern Mills, McCain Foods, and Conagra.

Roesler holds a bachelor’s degree in food science and technology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

Zhang receives International Investigator Award

Guodong Zhang

The journal Foods recently honored Guodong Zhang, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts, with the 2021 Young Investigator Award. Zhang, a member of IFT, received the 2020 Samuel Cate Prescott Award from IFT and the 2019 Young Scientist Research Award from the American Oil Chemists’ Society.

Zhang’s research explores the role of food in health and wellness with an emphasis on the prevention of inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer. His studies focus on how environmental and dietary compounds modulate the gut microbiome and innate immunity signaling to exaggerate inflammatory responses.

The author of more than 70 publications, Zhang received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, and a master’s degree in chemistry from the National University of Singapore. He earned a doctorate in food science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

ADSA names Bowman executive director

The American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) recently selected Jerry Bowman as its new executive director.

Most recently Bowman served as executive director of the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association, where he oversaw strategy, staff management, and operations. Previously he served as vice president of communications at IFT, leading strategic oversight of marketing, media relations, organizational communications, and publishing. Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at NSF International, the Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships Foundation, High Scope Educational Research Foundation, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Bowman holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia College Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from Michigan State University.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Jerry aboard,” said ADSA President Paul Kindstedt in a press release. “Along with a wealth of experience in association management, Jerry brings an award-winning ability to communicate the importance of science to multiple audiences. He also brings expertise in diversity and inclusion, educational content creation to attract students and early career individuals, and a global perspective through international partnerships. We believe his ability to work with a variety of stakeholders combined with his positive perspective will serve our association with distinction.”

Have some news to share about yourself or another IFT member? Email mmalochleb@ift.org.

Getting to know Ziynet Boz

Each month, we meet one of IFT’s valued volunteers

Ziynet Boz

At IFT’s 2015 Annual Event, doctoral student Ziynet Boz was approached by a graduate student representative of the Food Packaging Division and invited to join the leadership team as the student volunteer. “Since then,” she says, “I have taken numerous volunteer positions,” which include, most recently, serving as chair of the Food Packaging Division and as a member of the IFT Division Champion Team.

A tireless advocate with a diverse background that includes food engineering, food processing, and packaging, Boz also spearheaded the establishment of IFT’s Sustainable Food Systems Division, for which, she says, “I will be chairing and organizing the activities for the upcoming term.” She is also active in IFT’s publications, serving as an editorial board member and scientific journal evaluator for the Journal of Food Science and as a contributing editor for the processing columns in Food Technology.

In her academic role as assistant professor of sustainable food systems engineering in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida, where she earned her doctorate, Boz says, “I enjoy the multidimensional aspects of academic life. I have the opportunity to not only conduct exciting research, but also teach and perform extension activities. I also enjoy being an engineer working in the food industry because of the numerous accessible real-world challenges and examples from the food industry. Educating myself about teaching and mentoring as a part of my role has been eye-opening since many of us do not receive formal training on these concepts up until graduation.”

For Boz, volunteering has allowed her to expand her professional network and gain new insights through exposure to a variety of perspectives. “The mentorship I received and the informal leadership development culture within the Food Packaging Division was one of the most impactful professional components in my career,” she notes, adding that as a result, her scientific focus “has shifted to grand challenges such as more sustainable and circular food systems. I would like to continue to tackle important sustainability aspects through my diverse background in food engineering and packaging.

“The world is on the verge of rapid transformations, which include the food systems,” she reflects. “We will need to solve significant challenges, such as the need for more, better quality, and safe food with much less waste in the face of changing consumer diets, increasing population, and the pressure on natural resources at the nexus of water-energy-food. The solution lies in strategic collaborations with a convergence science mindset. I believe IFT is in a unique position to help us find these communities with its unique division and section structures as well as the food industry and academic membership base.”