Food Protection Trends - July/August 2018 - 302

IAFP's European Student
Travel Scholarship

Katrien Begyn
Ghent University
Ghent, Belgium

Giannis Koukkidis
University of Leicester
United Kingdom

302

Katrien Begyn is a Ph.D. candidate at Ghent University in Belgium in the Research Unit
of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation (FMFP-UGent) of the Department of Food
Technology, Safety and Health, located at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering. Since
receiving her M.S. in Biomedical Sciences, Ms. Begyn has been working on different shortterm research projects, i.e., Clostridium botulinum spores, microwave heating, and detection
of food pathogens in food products using PCR.
Ms. Begyn's doctoral research focuses on the impact of Bacillus cereus endospore
evolution on food safety, with an emphasis on UV and wet heat stress. This research project
is a cooperation between three Belgian institutes with extended knowledge of B. cereus:
FMFP-UGent; the Centre for Food and Microbial Technology, Department M2S, member of
Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Centre (LFoRCe, KU Leuven); and Flanders Research
Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Technology and Food Science, Food Safety
Unit (ILVO). The project's final goal is to assess the potential impact of B. cereus endospore
evolution in the food production chain at the molecular, population, and industrial levels.
Ms. Begyn is grateful to be a recipient of this year's European Student Travel Scholarship
and is looking forward to meeting and networking with professionals from academia, government, and industry in the field of food safety to exchange knowledge and establish new
collaborations.

Giannis Koukkidis is a Ph.D. researcher in the Department of Infection Immunity
and Inflammation at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, working with
Dr. Primrose Freestone. After completion of his undergraduate degree in Biological
Sciences, Mr. Koukkidis continued his master's degree in Infection and Immunity, where
he began examining the interactions of salad leaf tissues with enteropathogens, a topic
that later became his Ph.D. project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC).
In 2016, Mr. Koukkidis' research on Salmonella and salad interactions was published
by a leading food microbiology journal. Its importance on food safety and fresh produce
was covered by major news agencies worldwide, including the BBC, Reuters, and CBS.
Throughout his doctoral training, Mr. Koukkidis has attended conferences across
Europe and the U.S. on fresh produce and food safety. He received the IAFP Student
Travel Scholarship to attend IAFP 2017 in Tampa, Florida.
Upon completion of his Ph.D., Mr. Koukkidis wishes to expand his food safety portfolio
with a post-doctoral placement in the development of novel treatments that are capable of
preventing pathogenic bacteria attachment to fresh produce.
Mr. Koukkidis is very grateful to receive the 2018 European Student Travel Scholarship.
He believes this opportunity will help him develop future collaborations, as well as strengthen those formed from previous IAFP meetings in Cardiff, Athens, and Tampa. The networking opportunities in Sweden will help broaden his research horizons by enabling
contact with other researchers in the field of fresh produce safety.

Food Protection Trends July/August

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