Food Science Doctoral Students Beekman, Bruce, Singh Earn Feeding Tomorrow Scholarships

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From left: Tad Beekman, Rebecca Bruce and Asmita Singh, all food science doctoral students in Bumpers College, have earned IFT Feeding Tomorrow scholarships.

Three students in food science at the U of A have been selected to receive 2021 scholarships through Feeding Tomorrow: The Foundation of the Institute of Food Technologists.

Tad Beekman was chosen to receive the IFT Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division Silver Celebration Ph.D. Scholarship, which is given to one doctoral student annually.

Rebecca Bruce was chosen to receive the IFT Institute Thermal Processing Specialists Ph.D. Degree Scholarship.

Asmita Singh was chosen to receive the IFT Feeding Tomorrow General Graduate Scholarship.

All three are doctoral students in U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

Beekman, who has earned a Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship at the U of A Graduate School and International Education, placed second in the 2019 Arkansas Chapter Gamma Sigma Delta Ph.D. Poster Contest and won the Evergreen Award for Outstanding Presentation that Develops or Expands a Method at the National Conference for Sensory Professionals in 2020.

Bruce has had a paper she wrote with other members of the Department of Food Science, "Physicochemical and Functional Properties of Medium-Sized Broken Rice Kernels and Their Potential in Instant Rice Production," named an "editor's pick" by the Cereals & Grains Association, and earned a Doctoral Academy Fellowship from the U of A Graduate School and International Education. She also placed third in the 2021 Gamma Sigma Delta Ph.D. Oral Presentation Contest where she presented on engineering novel technologies for rice drying.

Singh has been investigating how autism spectrum disorders affect sensory perception of and behavior toward foods. She was selected as an "Early Career Researcher" at the 2019 Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium in Edinburgh, Scotland, and placed second in the Rose Marie Pangborn Graduate Student Oral Competition at the annual meeting of the IFT in 2020.

Both Beekman and Singh's adviser is associate professor Han-Seok Seo and Bruce's adviser is associate professor Griffiths Atungulu, both researchers and scientists with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture.

The Institute of Food Technologists foundation, Feeding Tomorrow, offers a variety of scholarships for freshman, undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in a variety of disciplines within the science of food.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.