Dr. Purnendu Vasavada is a Professor Emeritus of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-River Falls and principal and managing member of the PCV & Associates, LLC. He is recognized internationally for his teaching, applied research, and innovative training programs in Food Safety and Microbiology, and Rapid methods and Automation in Food Microbiology. He has been an invited speaker and convener at international conferences, workshops and symposia, dealing with food safety and microbiology, rapid methods and automation in microbiology, food quality assurance, HACCP and TQM, and food science education in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, China, India, and over 20 other countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Previously, Dr. Vasavada served as a FDA-ORISE Fellow (2011–2013) and the coordinator of the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA). He helped with founding of the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) and development of the FSPCA standardized training courses to support implementation of the Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Food regulations.
During his academic career at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Dr. Vasavada taught courses in Quality Milk Production and Processing, Dairy manufacturing, Food Processing, and Food Microbiology. As a Food Safety and Microbiology Extension Specialist with the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service, he developed and presented seminars and workshops for the dairy industry on a variety of topics including milk quality and microbiology, GMP, HACCP, emerging pathogens in milk, and rapid methods in microbiology, and helped teach the Wisconsin Cheesemakers’ License Short Course, Producing Safe Dairy Products Course, and Milk Pasteurization short course. For 30 years, Dr. Vasavada organized the annual UWRF Food Microbiology Symposium: Current Concepts in Foodborne Pathogens, and Rapid and Automated Methods in Food Microbiology, and developed the UWRF Rapid Method Workshop. Dr. Vasavada is the author or co-author of over 100 publications and has received numerous awards and professional recognitions including, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (1990), the IFT (2009), the IAFP (2010), the IAFST (2017), the Educator award (IAMFES 1997), the GMA Food Safety award (IAFP, 2012), Honorary Achievement award (FDA-CFSAN, 2012), the NSF Food Safety Leadership Award (2016), the WCMA's Babcock Award (2018), and the Chicago section IFT's Tanner Lecture Award (2018).
