PhD Students

  

The Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre has two new PhD Students!

 

Judith Fernandez

Judith's CRC Fast Facts:

  • Judith's project is entitled "Protecting the Safety and Quality of Australian Oysters Using Predictive Models Integrated with “Intelligent” Cold Chain Technologies
  • Her university of enrolment is University of Tasmania
  • Her primary supervisor is Professor Mark Tamplin
  • Her co-supervisors are Associate Professor Tom Ross and Associate Professor John Bowman
  • Judith was born in Barcelona, a city on the east coast of Spain.


Judith received her Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona in 2003. As part of these studies in an exchange program, she worked in Northampton, United Kingdom. During these three months she worked to improve leather water permeability by using different components during dehairing for the British Leather Research Centre. The year before finishing her studies, she worked in a food flavour company as a quality assistant. There, she wrote her Bachelor thesis “Optimisation of a flavour from transformation”. After gaining some experience and finishing her studies, she joined the Research & Development group. Although her experience was very positive, the willingness to gain more knowledge about foods brought her back to university.

In 2006, Judith received her Bachelor Degree in Food Technology at the University of Barcelona. Prior to finishing her Bachelor Degree, she participated as an exchange student at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, where she conducted food safety studies. In July 2006, she started an internship at Unilever Research & Development, Vlaardingen. She collaborated with the Advanced Food Microbiology Department in two different projects.

In January 2007, Judith wrote the results of her six months research project that focused on spoilage micro-organisms and how to prevent growth with hurdle technology “Effects of low water activities in combination with preservatives on suppressing yeast, mould and Staphylococcus aureus growth”. The second six months of the project investigated the effect of preservative on microbial growth. From these results, she wrote her Master thesis “Effects of humectant, undissociated sorbic acid and pH on Staphylococcus aureus growth”. She obtained her Food Safety Master Degree in The Netherlands in September 2007.

As a Seafood Cooperative Research Centre PhD student, Judith's research will focus on improving the quality and safety of oysters through the use of predictive tools integrated in the cold chain. Her project includes defining storage temperature effects on Vibrio species, quality index measurements and traceability.

Judith arrived in Hobart on the 14th February 2008 and looks forward to visiting other parts of Australia through her research and personal travels. She has also visited other countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Tunisia.

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Steven Cambridge

Steve's CRC fast facts:

  • Steven's project is entitled "Methodologies for the Implementation of Micro-Mobile Information Systems in the Cold Chain and the Resulting Implications of Time Temperature Logging for Models of Microbial Growth"
  • He is enrolled at the University of Tasmania
  • Steven's primary supervisor is Dr Paul Turner
  • His co-supervisor is Associate Professor Tom Ross
  • Steven's mentor is Professor Mark Tamplin Mentor (University of Tasmania)


Steven Cambridge is our mature aged PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania. Steven graduated with first class Honours in Information Systems after re-entering the tertiary system through TAFE Tasmania, where he graduated with a Diploma of Information Technology.

Steven's research specialities are supply chain, use of information systems and food safety, with a focus on integrating traceability solutions with models of microbial growth in the seafood cold and chill chains.

Steven is also currently a member of the Australian Computer Society and is Vice Chair of the Tasmanian Branch. He is also in the process of setting up a special interest group of researchers working on radio frequency identification and the integration of this technology into the fresh and chilled produce supply chain.

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