Ben Viz

Ben Viz is a Junior at the University of California, Davis, studying Applied Chemistry. On campus, he’s the Vice President of Epsilon Eta and the Ambassador of the Chemistry Club at UC Davis. He is interested in crop processing, food sustainability, and upcycling of agricultural byproducts. Serving as the Orchard Manager at the UC Davis Olive Center, he oversaw a team of students in organic orchard management and worked on the milling, bottling, and marketing of UC Davis Extra Virgin Olive Oil grown in the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard. Mentored under UC Food Quality/Selina Wang Lab, he helped develop machine learning models to detect industrial contaminants in Olive Oil and co-authored a manuscript evaluating the authenticity of avocado and olive oil in commercially processed foods. As an MSDT One-Health Scholar, Ben hopes to connect One Health perspectives to the investigation of food processing systems to improve food traceability, quality, and consumer health. 

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