Congrats for the newly procured USDA NIFA program!

Funded by a USDA grant, Mao is serving as the PI with $500k/yr for 4 years on a brand-new program - Integrating Food Science/Engineering & Education Network (IFSEEN). 

The IFSEEN consortium comprised of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, the University of Texas at San Antonio, New Mexico State University, and the University of New Mexico is to create an educational linkage to collaboratively enhance the presentation of underrepresented Hispanics in the food/agricultural science area by generating future Hispanic food safety/science professionals and leaders through collaboration among the four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico. To accomplish the goal, IFSEEN team will outreach to local high schools, develop new course materials, target incoming students, train them as cohorts as they matriculate through their undergraduate education, conduct cross-disciplinary food science research, and partner with USDA agencies and Tier 1 agricultural institutions nationwide. Collectively, the IFSEEN program will increase the number of Hispanics that pursue careers in the food/agricultural science fields.