Dr. Abani Pradhan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science & the Center for Food Safety and Security Systems (CFS3) at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining us, Dr. Pradhan was working as a Research Associate at the Quality Milk Production Services in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he also received his post-doctoral training.
He received his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his Master of Technology (M. Tech.) in Agricultural and Food Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India, and his Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech.) in Agricultural Engineering from Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology in Bhubaneswar, India. Dr. Pradhan is a recipient of the German Academic Exchange Service scholarship, through which he had conducted his master's research at the Institute of Process Engineering, Federal Research Center for Nutrition in Karlsruhe, Germany.
His research interests include quantitative microbial risk assessment, predictive microbiology, food safety engineering, and molecular epidemiology. Some of his recent research projects focused on quantitative risk assessments for Listeria monocytogenes contamination in foods, and molecular epidemiology and dynamics of endemic infectious diseases on dairy farms.
He is affiliated with multiple professional societies and has presented his research work at a number of professional meetings and conferences. Dr. Pradhan has several publications in peer-reviewed journals relevant to his research areas. He also serves as a reviewer for several journals relevant to his research interests and has chaired a number of meeting sessions.