Yu Zhang, graduate student in the cereal science program and graduate research assistant in the plant sciences department, received third place in the 2009 Institute of Food Technologists Carbohydrate Division Paper Competition held during the organization’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Her presentation was titled “Changes of Polysaccharides in Refrigerated Dough System During Storage.”

Zhang also received a Minnesota Division Graduate Scholarship and a Carbohydrate Division Graduate Scholarship (second place) from the Institute of Food Technologists. Her adviser is Senay Simsek, assistant professor of plant sciences. Zhang and Simsek collaborated with Osvaldo Campanella from Purdue University for this research.

The Institute of Food Technologists is a nonprofit international society with more than 20,000 members. The annual meeting and food expo is the largest annual food science forum and exposition in the world. More than 20,000 food scientists, suppliers and marketers from around the globe annually join news reporters at the convention, attracted by the promise of encountering the driving forces behind the innovations and information affecting consumers, growers, processors, regulators and researchers who make the U.S. food supply diverse.