NDSU graduate student Cassie Anderson won second place in the Best Student Research Paper Competition at the annual meeting for the American Association of Cereal Chemists International held Oct. 23-26 in Savannah, Georgia. She was one of six finalists from around the world competing for the award.

Finalists were selected based on the scientific merit of their research. The other five finalists were from Texas, Washington, Germany, Nebraska and Indiana.

Anderson is a cereal science master’s degree candidate in NDSU’s Department of Plant Sciences. She is advised by Senay Simsek, Bert L. D’Appolonia Cereal Science and Technology of Wheat Endowed Associate Professor.

The title of Anderson’s research is “Arabinoxylans from Cereal Processing Byproducts as a Basis for Biodegradable Food Packaging”. Her research analyzes the arabinoxylan, a form of dietary fiber, found in wheat bran, corn bran and dried distillers' grains as the main component in food packaging materials. The main objective of the research was characterization of each material and analysis of possible uses in the food packaging industry. Anderson and Simsek collaborated with Jiang Long, associate professor of mechanical engineering, in the research.

According to Anderson, the results of her research show great promise for the food packaging industry.

“Cassie did an excellent job presenting her work to the audience, which was made up of scientists in many different areas of cereal science research,” said Simsek. “She was well prepared and was able to provide answers to questions from the audience, who seemed to be impressed by her work.”

Anderson expects to complete her Master of Science degree in spring 2017 and publish her research shortly after.

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