Toni Wang Recognized for Research Involving Lipids and Associated Products
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A professor of food science at University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Tong (Toni) Wang has been named as the recipient of the 2020 Alton E. Bailey Award presented by the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS). The award commemorates Bailey’s contributions to fats and oils research by recognizing outstanding research and exceptional service in the field of lipids and associated products.
This is not Wang’s first award from the society. In 2016 she was named an AOCS Fellow and has also been recognized with the AOCS’ Timothy L. Mounts Award in 2013. Wang says she found her academic home while in graduate school and has passionately served the AOCSfamily in various capacities throughout her career.
Prior to joining the UT Department of Food Science in 2019, Wang was a member of the faculty at Iowa State University (ISU) for 19 years. She studied food science and technology, receiving her master’s degree at the University of Arkansas and her Ph.D. at ISU. She is the 2014 recipient of the ISU Mid-Career Achievement in Research Award.
Her work at ISU focused on chemistry and value-added utilization of agriculture products such as soybeans, corn, egg, dairy and other oleaginous biomass, primarily for their lipid components. She continues those studies at UT, where she specifically endeavors to create functional lipid materials to improve nutrition and widen their applications, including with water and grease-resistant and antimicrobial coatings for food and paper. She also studies ways to enhance egg and dairy product quality and value, such as fractionation of yolk and dairy phospholipids and the bioactive yolk antibody IgY as well as milk fat globular membrane proteins.
Throughout her career Wang has received numerous industry and federal research grants that support her creative work and has trained 36 graduate students and 20 post-doctoral appointees and visiting scientists.
“My accomplishment in research reflects teamwork from diligent students and collaborative faculty,” Wang says.
The AOCS’ Alton E. Bailey Award is sponsored by Archer Daniels Midland Company. It also usually includes an invited lecture at the AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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