Associate Professor and director of the food labs, Mary Cluskey, is focused on one thing – healthy food. She’s particularly interested in finding ways for people to better accept healthy eating. Toward that end, she’s working with student researchers on a couple of upcoming projects, including gauging the level of influence we can have in 
suggesting a different food option – for example, brown rice versus white – in a dorm at OSU.
Another student will hold focus groups as part of a study on college students’ perceptions of what healthy food is. “There’s an anti-milk perception, and lots of ideas about what’s healthy,” she says. “We’re interested in learning how they get these misperceptions, such as the fallacy that gluten is bad for everyone.”
Mary’s also excited about three new rooms in the center: the Foods Classroom Laboratory, the Food Teaching and Demonstration Laboratory, and the Food and Diet Studies Lab, in addition to smaller rooms, such as a computer space, still being developed.
Comparing the old labs to the new “is a night-and-day difference,” she says. It’s completely changed our image. We’re more modern, and the labs really put the students in a position to see the kinds of spaces they’ll see when they go out into the real world.”
Two former students, one of whom is now a teaching assistant, say the labs are more sanitary, less cluttered, cooler, feel more spacious and function on demand – unlike previous equipment. “We’re not running into each other,” one student said. “They’re more high-tech, familiarize us with commercial cooking techniques – and the colors are better.”
The search for a director …
The job posting appears on OSU’s jobs site, and an advertisement has been placed in top nutrition/foods and public health job posting sites and journals. The college has been actively recruiting at nutrition conferences and has sent the ad to every nutrition and public health department in the country. It also sent the posting to email listservs to research interest groups in relevant areas.
Although early in the search process, the college has been fielding several calls from interested researchers across the country and abroad. The range in expertise has been dietary fiber and cancer researchers, pediatric obesity and dietary approaches for decreasing metabolic syndrome from birth to adolescence. A short list of potential invitees should be determined by December.
