Director’s Statement:

This is an exciting and energizing time at the Whistler Center with new members, faculty and staff, grants, and advances in research. 

We are very pleased to welcome two new companies into the Whistler Center:  Roquette Freres headquartered in Lestrem, France with US operations and technical center in Keokuk, Iowa; and Cargill headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with other carbohydrate-based centers in Vilvoorde, Belgium, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Dayton, Ohio.

In other announcements, Dr. Brad Reuhs was awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, and Dr. Genyi Zhang accepted a Research Assistant Professor position in the Whistler Center in Carbohydrates and Health, and will strengthen our research efforts in this area, with emphasis on metabolic and physiologic consequences of low-glycemic carbohydrates and dietary fiber.  In this regard, Genyi and I, with collaborators at the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue and a human testing lab at Ohio University, have received an integrated USDA-NRI competitive grant “Functional Foods Containing Novel Carbohydrates for Energy Balance and Improved Health” that begins January 1, 2008.  Other USDA-NRI grants received by Whistler faculty include Lisa Mauer’s "Fundamentals, Effects and Consequences of Deliquescence in Multicomponent Food Systems", Jim BeMiller’s "Bridging the Gap Between starch granule architecture, molecular structure, and reactivity", Osvaldo Campanella and Bruce Hamaker’s “A Soluble Nanoscale Self-assembling Complex from Starch, Protein, and Lipid for Healthy Nutrient Delivery”.  In the analytical area, the Center has hired Anton Terekhov as Analytical Chemist.  Anton works with Dr. Reuhs and others principally on carbohydrate structural analysis with expertise in GC-MS, MALDI, and NMR spectroscopy.  Equipment-wise, we are awaiting delivery of a NIR spectrometer for Cliff Weil and Lisa Mauer, and two rheometers were donated from Tate and Lyle.  At our July 2007 Whistler Center retreat, we identified other equipment needs and are moving towards a funding package to buy a particle size analyzer, DMTA, rheometer, and MALS-RI system.  Additionally, we are working towards putting a larger NMR facility together for state-of-the-art carbohydrate structural analysis work.  In addition to strengthening our research capabilities, these equipments, we believe, will put us in a stronger position for larger Center grants.

Our Whistler Center fall Short Course date will be October 27-29, 2008.  We will present state-of-the-art topical areas on day 2 and repeated on day 3, so that each participant can attend several sessions.