Salam A. Ibrahim

North Carolina A&T State University

Dr. Salam A. Ibrahim is a research professor in the Food and Nutritional Science Program at North Carolina A&T State University.  For the past 22 years at North Carolina A&T State University, Dr. Ibrahim's research, teaching, and outreach activities have been dedicated to addressing issues related to fermented dairy products and milk quality, with a focus on practical approaches to quality and safety of food products. More recently, his laboratory's work has focused on the viability and functionality of probiotic cultures in dairy products and probiotic supplements. His lab works with the dairy and nutritional supplements industries on practical methods to ensure high viability of probiotics in nutritional supplements. They have also studied the molecular characteristics of Lactobacillus strains grown under different environmental conditions and have developed a new technology that enhances the survival of probiotics during processing, as well as developing a new emulsion system to enhance the viability of probiotics in different food products. Furthermore, they have worked on a new cultivation system that allows for the production of high bacterial cell mass. Dr. Ibrahim's lab also has interest in research that focus on herbs and plants that have high concentrations of functional ingredients, such as essential oils and antioxidants. The Ibrahim laboratory has been working on the bioconversion process of these natural products into very potent functional and biological compounds. Dr. Ibrahim is a regular reviewer, member of different editorial boards and guest editor of several journals of microbiology and food sciences.

Reza Tahergorabi

North Carolina A&T State University, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Dr. Reza Tahergorabi is an associate professor of food science in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at North Carolina A&T State University. In addition to his home department, Dr. Tahergorabi is an affiliated faculty member in the Center for Excellence in Cyber Security and an affiliated faculty member in the Center for Excellence in Product Design and Advanced Manufacturing at NC A&T State University. His main research interest is food processing and packaging. Dr. Tahergorabi has published over 80 peer reviewed papers in top-notch journals indexed in food science, and book chapters in books published by highly reputable publishers and editors. Dr. Tahergorabi is a life-time member of Phi Tau Sigma (The Honor Society of Food Science and Technology) and a professional member of IFT (Institute of Food Technologists). He is also a member of Gamma Sigma Delta chapter of NC A&T State University and was the recipient of the Award of Excellence in Research in 2017 and 2020. He served as a reviewer for numerous peer-reviewed journals, grant proposals, book proposals, and technical research papers for conferences. Dr. Tahergorabi served as the guest editor and co-editor of 7 different journals.  He also serves as the editorial board member of 5 different journals in food and nutritional sciences.

Tahl Zimmerman

North Carolina A&T State University

Dr. Tahl Zimmerman is an expert biochemical food scientist and Food and Nutritional Sciences lecturer at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. His research interests include the functionality and preservation of probiotic bacteria in dairy products and the development of novel food safety applications. Dr. Zimmerman recently identified choline metabolism disruption as a novel anti-microbial strategy. He is currently working to apply this new knowledge in the preservation of food products, including dairy products. Dr. Zimmerman has also developed several dairy-based classroom and lab exercises designed to improve students’ understanding of biochemistry and other basic sciences underlying Food Sciences and recently established a Food Biochemistry Education Laboratory at NCAT.

Ammar Altemimi

University of Basrah, Department of Food Science and Biotechnology

Dr. Ammar Altemimi is an assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, University of Basrah, Iraq. He is currently the department chair and also teaches courses in biochemistry and biotechnology, food chemistry, and dairy products. He is interested in methods to control, prevent, or eliminate pathogenic bacteria associated with food products. He is also interested in developing a research program that focuses on the innovation of economic extraction of essential oils and their antiviral/ antipathogenic pharmaceutical nano-formulations. Dr. Altemimi has conducted research related to designing ohmic heating systems for food processing applications, where considerable potential has been demonstrated for using this platform as a replacement for conventional heating methods. Therefore, efficiency and uniform heating of ohmic heating is highly desirable. As department chair, he has been in charge of developing academic programs, monitoring students' educational progress, training and motivating other non-teaching staff, managing career counseling, and other student services. He has published more than 40 papers in reputtable journals, such as Ultrasonic Sonochemistry Journal and Molecules Journal;  He has served as an board member and reviews for reputable journals.