معرفی
Tianxi Yang is an Assistant Professor of Food Science in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Yang leads the Yang Research Group, which focuses on developing innovative analytical technologies and advanced materials to improve food safety, sustainability, and resilience of agricultural and food systems.
Dr. Yang received her PhD in Food Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2018, followed by a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at BASF's North American Center for Research on Advanced Materials at the same institution in 2019. In 2021, she served as a Research Chemist/ORISE Research Fellow at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Dr. Yang's research spans interdisciplinary approaches from Food Science, Analytical Chemistry, Material Science, and Nanotechnology. Her work primarily focuses on three major themes: (1) Nanosensors in food, developing Point-of-Care tools for rapid, on-site food safety testing; (2) Nano-enabled agriculture, creating smart nanomaterials for sustainable farming practices; and (3) Sustainable food packaging, designing biodegradable and intelligent packaging solutions. Her recent publications demonstrate growing expertise in nanoplastic detection, intelligent food packaging, and machine learning applications in food safety monitoring.
- Applied Sciences 2022 Early Career Investigator Award (2023)
- U.S. Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellowship (2019)
- Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Tanner Award for most-cited paper (2019)
- Multiple scholarships including Phi Tau Sigma Student Achievement Scholarship (2018) and North America BASF Science Competition Award (2018)
Dr. Yang teaches courses including FNH 200: Exploring Our Food, FNH 302: Food Analysis, and FOOD 520: Advances in Food Analysis. She actively mentors graduate students in her research group and serves in various professional capacities, including as Chair of the Food Bioengineering Subdivision of the American Chemical Society Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2022-2023). Her research is supported by multiple grants focusing on developing innovative solutions for food safety challenges, with recent work on portable devices for microplastic detection gaining international attention through coverage in over 100 news outlets.
The Yang Research Group at UBC operates state-of-the-art laboratories equipped for nanomaterial synthesis, food analysis, and sensor development. The team consists of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research associates working collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of food science and nanotechnology.
