Research

My overarching research interests revolve around how liking (preference /hedonic response / affect) drives food intake. So far, I've focused on how oral sensory phenotypes can predict the sensations we experience from foods and beverages, and how those sensations influence liking for, and intake of, food. Foods and beverages with health implications - alcohol, fats, and vegetables - have been of particular interest.

How orosensory phenotypes interact with (ie moderate and/or mediate) reward mechanisms or other traits to influence intake behavior remains to be seen. My other research interests include the application of statistical modeling (Structural Equation Modeling, Multilevel Models, hierarchical and heterogenous slope regression) to human psychophysical data.

In 2005-2006, I was the Pangborn Sensory Science Scholarship winner while working on my dissertation at UConn with Valerie Duffy. This scholarship is awarded by the Sensory Science Scholarship Foundation to a doctoral student in human sensory science in memory of Rose Marie Pangborn, a pioneering researcher in the field.

From 2007 to 2009, I was supported by a NIH T32 NRSA training grant through the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addition Studies. As a postdoctoral research fellow at Brown, had the pleasure of working with Bob Swift, John McGeary, Valerie Knopik, and Kristie Jackson.