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Media Relations
Kansas State University
9 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-6415
media@k-state.edu
Information provided by K-State Media Relations, K-State's news service, may be reproduced without permission. The marks and names of Kansas State University are protected trademarks and may not be used in any commercial or private endeavor without the approval of the university.

SAJID ALAVI
Associate professor of grain science and industry

 

Sajid AlaviSajid Alavi knows what it takes to put the puff in the cheese puff or the elbow in elbow macaroni.

As a food engineer, Alavi researches extrusion processing, the technology used to make a variety of foods such as cheese puffs, pasta, breakfast cereals and pet foods. He also studies food microstructure imaging; structure-texture relationships; and rheology, looking at the flow of food materials that behave in an interesting or unusual manner.

Some of his current research involves developing healthy processed foods such as fruit or vegetable-based extruded snacks, increasing ethanol yields through novel thermo-mechanical pretreatment for cellulosic biomass, and utilization of extruders as continuous reactors for applications such as manufacture of starch-clay nanocomposites that can be used for making biodegradable packaging or production of sorghum protein concentrates from raw sorghum flour.

Alavi's research has been published in several journals, including Food Research International, Cereal Chemistry, Carbohydrate Polymers, International Journal of Food Properties, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Journal of Food Process Engineering and Journal of Food Protection. He also has presented his work at professional meetings across the country. Apart from research and teaching, he works closely with industry and also regularly conducts extrusion short courses both at K-State and internationally.

He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; Institute of Food Technologists; and the American Association of Cereal Chemists, where he served as secretary/treasurer of the Rheology Division. He also is a member of Gamma Sigma Delta, the honor society for agriculture.

Alavi joined K-State in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2008. He earned a bachelor's in agricultural engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India; a master's in agricultural and biological engineering from Penn State University; and a doctorate in food science and food engineering from Cornell University.

Alavi can be reached at 785-532-2403 or salavi@k-state.edu. More information on the extrusion program at K-State is available at http://www.grains.ksu.edu/extrusion