Research Assistant, (Aug-Dec. 2020)

Melissa is a recent graduate of the Human Nutrition program (May, 2020), and has over 5 years pastry baking experience. She is currently working on a product development project with with Dr. English, to explore value-added food applications for blueberry leaves.

Research Assistant: Lauren Viana, (2018 to 2019).

Lauren worked in the Department of Human Nutrition with Dr. Marcia English, in the X-Food Research Lab, and with Dr. Jen Jamieson for the 2018 – 2019 academic year. She is originally from London Ontario, and ventured out East to pursue an education related to both food and nutritional sciences. Lauren is a 2017 graduate of the StFX Human Nutrition undergraduate program and completed her Honours project with Dr. English on ‘the comparison of functional and sensory properties of untreated and treated Nova Scotian pulse flours‘. She then went on to complete a Post-Baccalaureate certificate in Food Bioscience from Dalhousie University in 2018 (Truro Campus). When offered the chance, Lauren was ecstatic to come back to Antigonish and work with Dr. English once again. Lauren’s main projects included investigating the effects of various fermentation strategies on the quality of Nova Scotian wine. She also carried out sensory evaluation trials with germinated and fermented bean flour samples, and developed a microbial assay for folate determination in gluten-free breads.