Graduate Student Recognized by Honor Society
North Dakota State University Department of Plant Sciences graduate student Ana Magallanes López was awarded the Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award for 2021. The award recognizes academic achievement, campus and community service, and career goals.
Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest and most selective multidisciplinary collegiate honor society. The Love of Learning Award is presented annually to 200 active members and comes with a monetary award to help fund post-baccalaureate activities including graduate studies, continuing education, travel for teaching and research, and professional development. Magallanes López was inducted into the organization in 2018.
Magallanes López is a Ph.D. candidate in the cereal science program and is advised by Dr. Senay Simsek, former NDSU professor and wheat quality project leader. Her doctoral dissertation, “Functional ingredients extracted from dry beans: chemical, structural, and functional characterization”, aims to characterize soluble dietary fiber extracted from dry beans as a functional ingredient to study how its composition interacts with the immune system during a chronic condition, such as obesity.
Magallanes López has demonstrated academic achievement through opportunities to showcase and publish her research. She has presented papers and posters in domestic and international meetings, which have resulted in several awards and recognitions. In addition, she has nine peer-reviewed publications and is the first author on eight of them. She is also a member of Gamma Sigma Delta, The Honor Society of Agriculture.
Magallanes López possesses a passion for serving and advancing the reach of science. She was part of an exhibition booth entitled “Cereals in North Dakota”, in which the difference between wheat market classes and their products was explained to the general public. She also participated in a local elementary school science night, where interactive experiments were used to explain the flavor perception mechanism to students. Additionally, she has served on the NDSU Graduate Student Council as Co-chair of Public Relations and Outreach, and has served as a Student Division Officer in the Cereals and Grains Association as the Product Development Competition Chair and as Secretary-Treasurer.
In the future, “I want to be a proactive link between industry and customers,” says Magallanes López. “This link would represent the development and implementation of the industry's product quality assurance and safety programs to enhance the customers' trust. Ultimately, I am interested in conducting high impact research projects that will benefit the involved actors in the production chain of grains.”
Source: Ana Magallanes López
Author: Kamie Beeson
Editor: Karen Hertsgaard
