765.494.6171bemiller@purdue.edu
GENERAL RESEARCH AREAS
- Starch
- Carbohydrate chemistry
SPECIFIC RESEARCH AREAS
- Starch granule structure, reactivity, and behavior
- Chemical and genetic modifications of starch
- Structure-functional property relationships of polysaccharides
- Mono- and oligosaccharide chemistry
- Uses of carbohydrates in food and other commercial applications
RESEARCH STAFF
Sung Ho Lee earned his B.S. degree in Food Science and Technology
and M.S. degree in Agricultural Biotechnology from Seoul National
University, Korea. His M.S. research involved modulation of cyclizing
and hydrolyzing activity of thermostable cyclodextrin glucanotransferase
and its application as antistaling enzyme. He joined Dr. Hamaker’s
group in January 2001 to pursue a Ph.D. degree. His research project
was on structural properties of hard-to-digest proteins and its
relationship to potential allergenicity. In July 2006 Sung Ho joined
Dr. BeMiller's lab to work on identification of lipids and starch
765.494.6171
Guibing Chen earned a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (July 1993) and a M.S. degree in Biochemical Engineering (April 1996) from Dalian University of Technology, P.R. China. His Master's thesis research focused on bioseparation. He came to Purdue as a Ph.D. student. His research project involves optimizing thermal processing of canned foods. His current major professor is Dr. Campanella.
Mohamad El-Abiad, from Beirut, Lebanon graduated from the American University of Beirut in July 1998 with a B.E. in Civil Engineering. He continued his graduate studies at the Lebanese American University and received his MBA with emphasis in Management in September 2002. He has been involved in the food industry since 2000 when he started working for a French company engaged in manufacturing food flavorings located in Paris, France. His job focused on sales and marketing of food flavorings in the Middle East region covering all Arab countries. Mohamad is a graduate student in Dr. Campanella's lab.
Benedict Odum graduated from the University of Ghana in 2000 with a B.S. in Food Science and Nutrition ⟨First Class Honors⟩. He worked as a teaching assistant and later as a data clerk at the University of Ghana, where he was instrumental in developing a database for foods in Ghana , West Africa, and Africa. In 2004 he obtained a M.S. in Food Technology in Process Engineering from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. His research focused on fractionation of milk with membranes, using polystyrene latex suspensions as a model system. Benedict joined Dr. Narsimhan and Dr. Campanella’s labs in June 2005. His Ph.D. research is on the effect of processing starch structure.
Dhananjay Pai is a MS student working in the area of rheology in extrusion systems. He joined the department in Fall 2006, being awarded a Ross Fellowship. Dhananjay completed his B. Chem. Tech with specialization in Food Technology & Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai, India, in May 2006 and joined the Department of Food Science at Purdue in August 2006. He is currently working with Dr. Osvaldo Campanella and Dr. Bruce Hamaker as co-advisors. His project involves the investigation of the effect of melt rheology on the extrusion of high fiber products that contain modified dietary fiber.
765.494.4923
Dr. Srinivas Janaswamy earned a Ph.D. degree in 1997 from the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. His doctoral dissertation was on the x-ray structural analysis of inorganic compounds in both single crystals and polycrystalline specimens. He joined Dr. Chandrasekaran's group in July 1999 and is conducting x-ray fiber diffraction and molecular modeling studies on industrially useful polysaccharides. 
765.494.5668
Dr. Zihua Ao received his B.S. degree in Food Engineering and M.S. degree in Fruit Science from Nanjing Agricultural University , China . He earned a Ph.D. degree in Food Science at Southern Yangtze University (former Wuxi University of Light Industry) in December 2000. In July of 2001, he joined Dr. Jan-lin Jane’s group at Iowa State University as a post-doc research associate. His research involved studying starch structures and properties, and investigating effect of starch molecular structure on enzyme hydrolysis. January 2005, he started working in the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research at Purdue University under Dr. Bruce Hamaker direction. His current research focuses on the fundamentals of slowly digestible starch.
Min-Wen Cheng completed her B.S. in Plant Pathology from National Taiwan University in 2002. After that, she worked in Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica in Taiwan as a research assistant for one year. Her research focused on understanding the response of Agrobacterium-plant interaction at the molecular level. She came to Purdue University in 2003 and finished her M.S. in Botany and Plant Pathology Department in 2005. She joined Dr. Hamaker’s group in 2006 as a Ph.D. student. Her Ph.D. project is on better understanding the relationship between starch fine structure, starch degradation products, and digestion property.
Dave Petros graduated from Purdue with a BSc in Biology and a M.Sc in Biochemistry. His thesis was how site-Directed Mutagenesis Affects the Properties of DNA-Binding Proteins. He currently works in Dr. Hamaker's lab as a research assistant using molecular techniques to study sorghum allergens.
Devin Rose received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Food Science from Brigham Young University . His M.S. research involved studying the storage properties of whole wheat and white flours. In 2005, he was awarded the AOCS Analytical Division student award for his work with lipase in wheat. He joined Dr. Hamaker’s group in pursuit of a Ph. D. degree with a focus on dietary fiber chemistry in August 2005.
Pinthip Rumpagaporn earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Department of Food Science and Technology, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand and presently is a Ph.D. student in the same department. She will be a faculty member of Kasetsart University after graduation. With support of the Thailand Commission on Higher Education, she is currently conducting her thesis research in Dr. Hamaker’s laboratory from March 2006 until February 2007. Pinthip will continue as a Ph.D. student in the Whistler Center, with research focus on resistant starch prepared by debranching of waxy rice starch.
Dr. Ilan Shomer is a visiting scientist in Dr. Hamaker’s lab from the Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Israel. He is working on collaborative research investigating protein-carbohydrate interactions and protein restructuring and coagulation in cell walls of vegetables, fruits and cereals as related to texture and structure.
765.494.9111
Davida Alexander has joined Dr. Lisa Mauer’s group with ALS/NSCORT. Her project is to (1) identify the threshold radiation dose that will affect the peanut oil quality, (2) identify the shelf life of these irradiated oils, (3) identify and evaluate counter measures to improve peanut oil quality in elevated radiations and time, (4) identify the shelf life of the extended oil is needed, (5) characterize the affects of radiation on peanuts grown in space, and (6) determine effects of radiation on essential fatty acids.
Julieta Ortiz received her B.S. degree in Chemistry at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, where she isolated and evaluated the thermal stability of trypsin inhibitors from Phaseouls vulgaris beans. Julieta got her M.S. Degree in Food Science at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, where she characterized the physical and chemical properties of the fat from Theobroma bicolor seeds under the advice of Dr. Ricardo Bressani. Julieta is pursuing a Ph.D. in Food Science at Purdue University with Dr. Lisa Mauer as her Major Professor. Her research is about the deliquescence in multicomponent food systems.
Alecia Shand graduated with a B.Sc. in General Chemistry & Food Chemistry from The University of the West Indies, Mona in her homeland Jamaica. She then worked for The Scientific Research Council in Jamaica for 1 1/2 years and in Fall 2005, she joined Dr. Mauer's group at Purdue University to do her M.S. degree in Food Science. Her research focus is to recommend cultivars, preservation methods and storage conditions to optimize food quality and nutrient profile of the stored food system, including bulk ingredients and the fresh food system for NASA.
Adam Stoklosa earned his B.S. in Biological Sciences at Purdue University. He joined Dr. Mauer's group in July 2004 in the M.S. degree program. His research focuses on characterizing Apogee and Perigee wheat cultivars designed specifically for the mission to Mars and to determine how these cultivars react upon exposure to elevated levels of radiations.
765.494.1199
Linda Indrawati earned a B.S degree in Food Process Engineering (May 2004) from Purdue University . She joined Dr. Narsimhan's research group right after graduation (Summer 2004). Her master's thesis research involved studying the mechanisms of the effect of whipper geometry on protein-stabilized foams during mechanical whipping.
Xiaoyu Wu earned his B.S. degree from the Department of Chemical Engineering in July 1999, and a M.S. degree from the Department of Biological Sciences and Technology at Tsinghua University . His M.S. research involved the stability of Endostatin, an angiogenesis protein in different conditions. He joined Dr. Narsimhan's group in August of 2004 to pursue a Ph.D. degree and is working on the project of determining the structure properties of selected proteins on different interfaces.
765.496.2497
Andrew Curtis received his B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Food Chemistry from Purdue University. He is pursuing his Ph.D. under Dr. Brad Reuhs. His current research is on tomato fruit ripening; isolation of Rhamnogalacturonan II in Epidermal Cells; and Carbon Utilization by Pathogens in Produce.
Anton Terekhov joined Dr. Reuhs’ group as a Research Assistant in 2005. He is proficient in analytical chemistry, molecular biology techniques and analytical instruments such as NMR, GCMS, LCMS and FTIR. Anton has seven years of experience in an interdisciplinary laboratory environment including the fields of analytical chemistry, microbiology, genetics, geology, chemical and civil engineering. His main research area is carbohydrate analysis using above mentioned analytical instruments.
Jae Wook Yoon earned a B.S. and M.S. degree in Food Science from Korea University, where he studied molecular fractionation of starch by density-gradient ultracentrifugation. He worked as an assistant researcher in Korea Molecular Medicine and Nutrition Institute in Medical College of Korea University. In August 2003, he joined Dr. Reuhs group to pursue a Ph.D. degree.
765.496.1917
Deborah Groth is currently completing her B.S. degrees in the Biological sciences at Purdue while working on her M.S. degree in Agronomy. Deborah joined Dr. Weil’s group in August of 2003. Her project involves high-throughput screening of mutagenized maize populations for the presence of slowly digesting starches
765.494.6317
Elliott Hickman earned a B.S. degree in Food Science from Purdue University and joined Dr. Yao’s lab in August 2005 in the M.S. Program in the area of food chemistry. His research is involved in low-cost value-added biomass conversions related to ethanol industry. He also studies the molecular structure of novel starches created by genetic and enzymatic modifications. He uses HPLC, texture profile analysis, extrusion, and other methods in his research.
Jin-E Shin earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Food and Biotechnology from Yonsei University, South Korea. She worked for 1.5 years as a researcher in Cancer Research Institute from Seoul National Medical University and then worked for 3 years in Daewoong pharmaceutical Company, South Korea. She earned a Ph.D. degree (Summer 2004) in Food Science at Purdue University. Her research topic was Alkaline N-deacetylation of chitin using a twin-screw continuous processor: optimization and characterization. She joined Dr. Hamaker’s laboratory as a post-doctoral Research Associate in October 2004. She is working on the modification of starch digestibility. Jin-E is currently working in Dr. Yao's lab.