Research Focus
   
1. Delivering materials science and analytical chemistry input to solve food quality, stability, nutrition, and flavor-sensory challenges via creating cutting-edge methodologies to unravel the relations between molecular behaviors and macroscopic properties of food materials.
2. Exploring the promising strategies for sugar and salt reduction foods and further investigating the palatability and consumer acceptance of healthier food alternatives using novel sensory evaluation methods.
3. Implementing statistical and machine learning models to instruct bioactive food development and assessing consumers’ behavior and health conditions as consequences.

Education
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA
Doctor of Philosophy, Major in Food Science and Human Nutrition (2016)
ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, NATIONAL CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY TECHNOLOGY, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Master of Science, Major in Food Safety and Technology (2011) 
NANJING AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, Nanjing, China
Bachelor of Engineering, Major in Food Quality and Safety (2009)

Professional Experience
NANKAI UNIVERSITY, TIANJIN, CHINA
Associate professor at School of Medicine, 05/2022-Current
SHENZHEN LUCHEN SENSE TECH. LTD., SHENZHEN, CHINA
Chief Technology Officer, 08/2021- 04/2022
PHARMAVITE LLC., VALENCIA, CA.
Research Scientist, 09/2019-06/2021
KERRY INC., BELOIT, WI.
Research Scientist, 12/2016-09/2019
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, IL.
Postdoctoral Researcher, 06/2016-11/2016

Selected Publications (*corresponding author, #first author)
• Lu Y#,& Fu T J.Performance of Commercial Colorimetric Assays for Quantitation of Total Soluble Protein in Thermally Treated Milk Samples. Food Analytical Methods,2020,13(6):1337-1345.
• Lu Y#,Gray DL, Yin L, Thomas L, and Schmidt S.Unraveling  the wide variation in the thermal behavior of crystalline sucrose using an enhanced laboratory recrystallization method. Crystal Growth & Design,2018,18(2):1070-1081.
• Lu Y#,Thomas L, & Schmidt S.Differences in the thermal behavior of beet and cane sucrose sources. Journal of Food Engineering,2017,201:57-70.
• Lu Y#,Thomas L C, Jerrell J P, Cadwallader K R, & Schmidt S J. Investigating the thermal decomposition differences between beet and cane sucrose sources. Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization,2017,1-14.
• Lu Y#,Yin L, Gray D L, Thomas L C, & Schmidt S J.Impact of sucrose crystal composition and chemistry on its thermal behavior. Journal of Food Engineering,2017,214:193-208.
• Zhou C, Wang J, Sun N, Tian J, Wang J, Lu Y, Wang P, Huang K, Che H. Allergenicity of recombinant human lactoferrin to an animal model Brown Norway rats. Food and agricultural immunology,2014,25(1):pp.34-48.

Patents
• Klatt J, Cooper R, Landorf A, Sheehany V M, Lu Y, Maegli J W. Natural anti-microbial combination in stable dry powdered form. Described in U.S. provisional application no. 62/570, 313, Publication date 2021-4-1, with Pub. No.: US20210092952A1.

• Pan L, Potineni R, Lu Y, Lee P, Muchena J K, Chee C. Composition and methods for preparing hemicellulose-rich extract from spend coffee ground. Described in U.S. provisional application no. 62/874,063. Publication date 2021/1/21 with Pub. No.: US 2021/0017299 A1.