My research

For the past few years, my "job" has been being a Food Science graduate student. I'm specializing in Sensory Science which involves evaluating and understanding foods/products, etc. using human senses. It also involves a LOT of statistics. I'm not doing the discipline any justice with that definition, but trust me, it's super duper cool and if you're interested, here's a link to the Institute of Food Technologists' (IFT) Sensory Evaluation Division (SED).

Sometimes we run acceptance tests to determine the level of liking of a product. Other tests like a Descriptive Analysis panel involves training panelists to hone in on key attributes(sweetness, flavor, texture, etc.) of products and rate the samples on these attributes. It's a great field to be in, plus there never seems to be a shortage of sensory scientist jobs on the mainland. You could work for companies focusing on food, pet food, skincare, household products...pretty much any company that involves consumer insight.

Yeah, so my lab is great! We all really enjoy food,like to eat, and like to study food. That's probably the reason why most of us decided to pursue Food Science and specialize in Sensory Science.

In February I'll be conducting a Descriptive Analysis panel for 4 weeks, so the blog posts will probably be sparse next month. I'll be training my human subjects to be "instruments" in rating attributes in solutions.
Does it sound like fun? Email me uiucsensory 'at' gmail.com if you're in Champaign, IL and interested in participating. This semester a few of my labmates are conducting panels, so if you want to be a human guinea pig, let me know.

My panel runs from Feb. 2-Feb. 27 (~1 hour/day, five days a week, four weeks) and we're paying you! Plus every day you get a snack (chips, snack bar, etc) too.