<p>So I have been noticing something … there is nearly no food science research in any of the first 25 schools of the USNWR (I just took those since they were convenient I mean you can choose another grouping.)</p>
<p>Though I found out MIT disbanded its food science department in 1988. wth.</p>
<p>I think this is rather appalling. If Coca-Cola recruits at Michigan State why not UVA? =((</p>
<p>V-Tech has one, but not UVA.
Maryland has one but not Johns Hopkins.
UCLA has a nutrition department … as a subset of its school of medicine.
University of Illinois has one … but not UChicago.</p>
<p>I resent this kind of snubbing of my field! Are Harvard professors too above such a proletarian interest? When it came to selective bioactivity, my organic prof kept talking about drugs, but never flavour compounds. When it came to polymerisation, it was about plexiglas but not the formation of edible gels of customisable textures. I demand a cultural shift. Is the study of food seen as some sort of lesser, “vocational” discipline? Why should something as complicated as the thermodynamics of the phase transitions of chocolate (way more complex than the classic binary solution) interest a prof at Vermont but not at Yale?</p>
<p>Hey I have a quick question for anyone who would like to answer. Im thinking bout doing food science but wanted to know if its possible to earn a BS in food science, but then work in an executive or managerial position in a food company.</p>
<p>Food Science programs have historically been in universities in the College of Agriculture. Land grant universities have always been the leaders in agriculture, not ivies.</p>
<p>Is the study of food seen as some sort of lesser, “vocational” discipline</p>
<p>I don’t think so- however, just like education, engineering & business; agriculture and related fields tend to be graduate fields of study in many schools.
A biology degree gives you the base of knowledge not only in the sciences, but in a school with distribution requirements, in history, economics and psychology that you may find to be invaluable ten years later in your field.
Specializing too early- isn’t always a good idea- there are many overlapping disciplines with ramifications that might not be considered if the preparation is too narrow.</p>
<p>You might be interested in one of the schools where students are learning about urban agriculture.</p>
<p>What I mean that food science topics are almost never covered in chemistry and neuroscience texts. It’s almost like completely ignored. Again, so much emphasis on drugs and plastics (don’t get me wrong – I do like to study them) and not enough on food. Food is a great way to introduce students to phase diagrams of solutions of more than 2 components, e.g. chocolate.</p>
<p>The synergy for example of garlic compounds with glutamate is well known but this simple fact is not even mentioned in any of the college texts I have seen!! </p>
<p>We get pretty “specialised” as undergraduates. I mean, in our third semester lab we ended up doing tedious peptide and nucleotide syntheses involving expensive amino acids and nucleotides that had been selectively protected. If we can do that, we should have labs that cover FS topics.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’m being too narrow. I think it can be very interdisciplinary. After all you can discuss the breeding genetics of a transformed crop or how sugar tends to suppress Na+ reception in the mouth or how adding cocoa butter will lower the melting point of your confection by some function of concentration. Hardly IMO, “narrow”.</p>
<p>If you want to major in food science, look for the STRONG programs in that field. If that doesn’t include the top 25 schools…so be it. You should be looking for a strong program in your intended field of study…unless you aren’t sure and want the option of switching majors. Some of the schools posted…Tufts, Cornell, are not exactly poor schools. </p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand why you are so upset that the top 25 schools don’t seem to have your chosen major. What difference does that make when so many others have very good programs? Just my humble opinion.</p>
<p>I don’t really want to major in FS. I want to do FS research and add it to my list of skills…I mean FS isn’t the only thing I want to do. There’s drugs, plastics, and hooking neurons up to tiny electronic interfaces. </p>
<p>FS is simply for an appealing application of biochemistry, neuroscience and genetics. I can’t eat fruit flies. I can certainly eat chocolate confections.</p>
<p>(also I’m looking for summer research programmes, not schools to transfer into …)</p>
<p>thumper1: I’m looking for summer REUs, not schools I want to transfer into.</p>
<p>However, I can’t find a FS department that offers summer research… </p>
<p>I’m just looking to explore career options. I’m also looking for programmes where I can apply advanced organic chemistry techniques, conduct neurobiological assays (and not just subjective psych tests), and practice molecular biology techniques, e.g. isolating enzymes, receptors and other proteins.</p>
<p>I don’t really want to specialise in FS … I just want to work on my undergraduate chemistry skills using FS as a topic. It’d be pretty cool if I could have a research project in FS… my topic of interest right now is adenosine monophosphate as a bitter blocker.</p>
<p>What about exploring research opportunities as an unpaid intern with a company that does such research. I would think that most of the LARGE food manufacturing companies have a R/D section. Perhaps your professors where you are attending school can help you with this.</p>
<p>One of my sisters has a BS in food science from a large southern flagship university (graduated at some point in the 1980s; never took the time for an MBA). After working her way up, she has been an executive in product development for several different international mega-food companies. At the moment, she is an exec. for a company that supplies food production companies with their various ingredients, but was recently the vice-president for product development at a company everyone here is familiar with.</p>
<p>She makes a lot of money. She works horrendous hours and travels constantly.</p>
<p>kashmirsun, I have a relative whose degree is food engineering, not food science. However, he was educated in Europe. I’m not sure if there are any dedicated food engineering departments in the US, but perhaps you could scout out some for summer opps.</p>
<p>Has anyone ever used engineering techniques to study heat dissipation in a piece of chicken?</p>
<p>I just fried several pieces of half-frozen chicken without any flour; they were sliced chicken quarters so you got a nice-cross section of the meat profile from the surface to the ice nucleus. It kind of reminded me of those diffusion flux across a plane of x mm thickness problems…except the ice gives it a twist.</p>
<p>Kashmirsun/galoisien, your ardor is wonderful – but this isn’t an engineering board!</p>
<p>Besides, if the chicken isn’t defrosted, that just means you run it under some warm water til it is. Maybe nuke it a little bit. Problem solved, and I’ve never taken orgo :-)</p>
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