Dr.Howard Q.Zhang
Director
USDA ARS Western Regional Research Centre.
USDA,USA
Biography
Dr.Howard Zhang is the Director for the USDA ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California. He leads research on Produce Safety, Plant Mycotoxin, Foodborne Contaminants, Processed Foods, Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering, Crop Improvements and Utilization, Genomics and Gene Discovery, and Exotic and Invasive Weeds.WRRC also houses the Plant Gene Expression Center, ARS Pacific West Area office, Forest Service Branch and an APHIS laboratory. Dr. Zhang is a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service. Howard was born and raised in Hunan Province of China. He received his BS from Hunan Agricultural University in 1982, MS from the University of Guelph in 1987, and Ph.D. from Washington State University in 1992. He served two years as post-doctoral associate at Washington State University. He was then appointed Assistant Professor (1994-1999),Associate Professor (1999-2003) and Full Professor (2003-2004) at the Ohio State University. In 2004 he joined USDA as Research Leader for Food Safety Intervention Technologies.
Research Interest
His areas of expertise include nonthermal processing technologies, pulsed electric fields, packaging, electronic instrumentation and process automation. He is a pioneer and inventor of PEF technology.