News – Food Sustainability Group

Dr. Yang talked about the sustainability of plant proteins at the 2026 AAAS annual meeting. In the news: NC State researchers to discuss alternative proteins at AAAS annual meeting.

Ajinkya and Dr. Yang presented at the 2026 Gordon Research Conference – Foods of the Future.
Congratulations to
- Millena for being selected as a CALS SCIENC Fellow: Students Connecting with International Enterprises in NC
- Ajinkya for receiving the NC Sustainability Funds to co-host the 2026 Spring Alternative Protein Symposium
Zimeng joined the lab as a new PhD student. Welcome to the team!

A new review paper on global food loss and waste has been published! Check it out here.
Ajinkya has been selected for the Global One Health Academy Spring 2026 Graduate Travel Awards. Congrats!
Dr. Yang presented at the NC A&T and University of Idaho seminars.

Congrats to Ajinkya for successfully defending his MS thesis!
Seung Hyun presented her research on nLCA of dietary changes at the 2025 IPAC meeting.
We are at the 2025 Bezos Center Summit: Dr. Yang for the research talk and the team for posters.

Dr. Yang presented ‘Technoeconomic and life-cycle assessment approaches for resilient food systems’ at Cornell University.
Dr. Yang talked about TEA-driven design for sustainable food systems at the 2025 Circular Bioeconomy Systems Conference.

We attended ACS Fall 2025! Here is Ajinkya presenting ‘Sustainability analysis on animal-source foods’!
Ajinkya presented a poster on nutrition-based LCA (nLCA) of animal-source foods at the 2025 SDFRC annual meeting.
Dr. Yang talked about recent updates on sustainability analysis in the dairy industry at the 2025 SDFRC annual meeting.

Juan presented ‘TEA of sorghum protein’ at the 2025 Summer Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium. Well done!
We are at IFT FIRST 2025! Both Millena and Seung Hyun presented their recent work. Great job!

A new paper on the sustainability analysis of non-thermal food processing technology has been published! Check it out here.
Thanks to Buhler for hosting us at the Food Application Center in Minneapolis! Fantastic tour!
Millena presented her work on life-cycle sustainabiltiy assessment (LCSA) at the 2025 ISSST. Great work!

New paper on plasma application in food preservation published! Check it out here.
End-of-semester group dinner to celebrate a productive and rewarding semester!
Congratulations to Robert for successfully defending his thesis!

Dr. Yang presented ‘Sustainable agri-food systems’ in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Case Western Reserve University.
Seung Hyun was awarded the 2025 FBNS Graduate Scholarship – Robert H. Hartman Graduate Endowment and FSC Travel Award Scholarship. Congratulations, Seung Hyun!
Ajinkya and Seung Hyun presented their research at the 2025 Graduate Student Research Symposium. Great job!
Dr. Yang presented ‘LCA/TEA of alternative proteins’ at UNC-Chapel Hill.

We are excited to continue working with Alamance Foods on the phase 2 sustainability project!
Dr. Yang delivered guest lectures on LCA and TEA of sustainable proteins for the Industry and Systems Engineering course at NC State.
Dr. Yang presented ‘Sustainability assessment of food processing’ at the USDA Multi-institute seminar series.

Seung Hyun and Dr. Yang were selected as part of the 2025 cohort of NC State’s KIETS Climate Leaders Program.

Dr. Yang co-instructed the LCA/TEA pre-conference workshop at the 16th Conference of Food Engineering (CoFE) in Seattle.

Dr. Yang co-organized the Sustainable Agri-Food Technology Summit (SAFTS), which has brought a passionate group of participants to advancing sustainability in agri-food systems. In CALS news: Sustainable Agri-Food Technology Summit Gathers a Variety of Voices
Ajinkya was awarded the 2024 FBNS Graduate Scholarship – Robert H. Hartman Graduate Endowment. Congratulations, Ajinkya!

Dr. Yang presented in the Food and Climate session at the KIETS Climate Leaders Program Fall Symposium.

CALS Emerging Research Showcase: Long-term carbon sequestration. Watch the event recording here.