December Luncheon Meeting (Goleta) 12/13/17

Red Fish, Blue Fish, Dead Fish: Sensors for Food Safety

35 million tons of food is lost or wasted annually in the United States. Nearly half of this waste occurs in the home. Given the uncertainty with consumer labels and the potential for food-borne illness, consumers either follow the old adage "when in doubt, throw it out" or are pressed to take a risk with cooking and serving food of questionable quality.

Professor Javier Read de Alaniz received his B. S. degree from Fort Lewis College in 1999 where he conducted undergraduate research under the direction of Professor William R. Bartlett. He obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Tomislav Rovis at Colorado State University in 2006 with a research focus on asymmetric catalysis. Javier then moved to California, where he worked in the area of total synthesis with Professor Larry E. Overman at the University of California, Irvine. He began his independent career in 2009 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UCSB and an Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). His research group is involved with a wide range of fundamental and applied chemistry that extends from the development of new synthetic transformations to the creation of a novel class of organic sensors.