The Team of Experts at ISU Center for Crops Utilization Research
The staff at ISU Center for Crops Utilization Research have dedicated their passions to help our partners to pursue their innovations in industrial fermentation and food processing development. Working with our industrial partners, our team is able to come up with creative solutions to implement the partners’ unique processes with our latest facilities and equipment.
Meet Our Researchers & Staff
Zhiyou Wen
Director 1041 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 wenz@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-294-0426
Education:
B.S., Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 1994
M.S., Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 1997
Ph.D., Biochemical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, 2001
Dr. Wen supervises the daily operations of the center facilities and staff. He has fiscal responsibility for the center, hires and supervises staff. He is also leading the efforts of enhancing the Center visibility and leveraging staff expertise and services available for industry partners.
Dr. Wen is a professor at Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University. His research has been focused on bioprocessing engineering, green and sustainable food, fuel and biomaterials processing technologies. He has secured over $15 million dollars in research funding since joining ISU faculty in 2010. These research results have led to a number of technology innovations and patents. Dr Wen is also the co-founder of Gross-Wen Technologies Inc. (www.algae.com), an Iowa-based international company that uses algae to mitigate water pollution while delivering high-value products, including biofuels, bioplastics,food, feed and fertilizer.
Deborah McClure
Administrative Assistant 1577 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 mcclure1@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-294-2342
Education:
BS: Computer Science, Graceland University, Lamoni, IA 2005
Debroah’s major responsibility is to assist CCUR Director for Center operations such as processing various documentations, maintaining communications with industrial customers; and purchasing and procurement.
Deborah has a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Graceland University. Before joining CCUR, she worked as licensing specialist for the Iowa Board of Pharmacy Examiners.
Show-Ling Lee
Fermentation Team Leader & Research Scientist 1577 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 slingl@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-294-0160
Education:
B.S., Applied Chemistry, Providence University 1992
M.S., Food Science, Drexel University, 1995
Show-Ling joined the Center for Crops Utilization Research in May 2020. She spearheads a fermentation team working on both small and pilot scale industrial projects, supports downstream processing, and leads an analytical lab providing services. Additionally, she oversees financial accounting and budget management
She has been with Iowa State University since 2010 and has served many roles in her career. She has managed a fee-for-service meat analytical lab for internal and external clients. Prior to that, she worked for several research labs focusing on lipid extraction, characterization, quantification, yeast and anaerobic fermentation and has supervised multiple facilities to ensure the daily operations meets safety requirements.
Allison Little
Research Scientist 1577 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 alittlel@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-294-2518
Education:
B.S. Food Science, Iowa State University, 2021
M.S. Food Science and Technology, Iowa State University, 2023
Allison joined the Center for Crops Utilization and Research in June 2023. Her role as a Research Scientist II is to develop, design, and conduct research and experiments for both Iowa State university and private companies.
She graduated from Iowa State with her bachelors in 2021 and masters 2023, both degrees were in Food Science and Technology. During her time at Iowa State Allison worked as an undergraduate research assistant and graduate research assistant in Dr. Mendonca’s Food Safety Laboratory. Allison also had the opportunity to work for The Hershey Company for 15 months as a Food and Ingredient Co-op during her time as an undergraduate student.
Ryley Hoven
Research Scientist 1577 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 ryhoven@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-661-7928
Education:
B.S. Biology, Iowa State University, 2020
Ryley joined the Center for Crops Utilization Research in April 2022. Here, she helps develop and execute industrial Fee-For-Service projects.
She graduated from Iowa State University in Winter 2020 with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in microbiology. Before joining CCUR, she worked as a Food Science Technician for Benson Hill. There she analyzed the composition, structure, and functionality of food ingredients and conducted bench and pilot scale methods to process seed varieties into food ingredients.
Sara Bazyn
Research Scientist 1577 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 sjbazyn@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-294-2518
Education:
AS, Kirkwood Community College, 2017
B.S. Biology, Iowa State University, 2019
Sara joined the Center for Crops Utilization Research in April 2022. At CCUR, she is a part of the fermentation team and helps develop, design, and execute both large and small scale projects for companies.
She graduated from Iowa State University in December 2019. Before coming to CCUR, she worked as a lab technician for Eurofins Nutritional Analysis Center and as a food science technician for Benson Hill.
Mitch Michel
Engineering Team Lead & Technical Project Specialist 1563 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 mmmichel@iastate.edu Phone : (563)-581-8770
Education:
B.S. Industrial Technology, Iowa State University 2015
M.S. Agricultural and Industrial Technology, Iowa State University, 2018
Mitchel joined the Center for Crops Utilization Research in November 2021. He has been with Iowa State University since 2013. He leads the engineering team in operating and maintaining lab and pilot scale fermentation equipment, downstream processing, innovative food production processes, and customized extrusion research of starches and proteins. His role is to develop, design, and conduct industry and university based research projects. He manages and coordinates facility, equipment, and process improvements.
Before joining CCUR, Mitchel worked as a research technician for the Center for Industrial and Services and Polymer and Food Protection Consortium. In this role, he managed daily lab operations for various polymer processing, analytical characterization, and testing equipment, such as single and twin extrusion (strand, cast, blown film), injection molding, DSC, TGA, FTIR, and various mechanical property testing techniques. Mitchel participated in leading project discussion with clients, experimental design, and execution.
Michael Gross
Technical Project Specialist (Room 1131) BioCentury Research Farm 1327 U Ave Boone, IA mbgross@iastate.edu Phone : (402)-681-6447
Education:
B.S. Biology, Iowa State University, 2016
Michael Joined the Center for Crops Utilization Research (CCUR) in August of 2022 as a Fermentation Engineer. Michael has expertise in pilot and commercial scale research, personnel management, and working with industry clients’ projects. He is to ensure the BCRF fermentation facility is well maintained and functions safely.
In 2012 Michael started to work for the Food Science department as an undergraduate researcher until graduation in 2016. Post-graduation he worked as a Quality Control Scientist for Advanced Analytical Technology Inc. After a few years there, he moved to Gross-Wen Technologies as the Operations Manager and is one of the founders of Gross-Wen Technologies Inc (GWT). Before leaving Michael worked as the R&D operations manager, in this position he helped innovate a novel algae growing system into a commercially available system. GWT is an Iowa-based international company that uses algae to mitigate water pollution while delivering high-value products, including biofuels, bioplastics, food, feed, and fertilizer. (www.algae.com)
Caleb Wandschneider
Technical Project Specialist 1955 Food Sciences Building, Ames, Iowa 50011 cwand@iastate.edu Phone : (515)-294-3690
Education:
B.S., Agricultural Engineering, Iowa State University, 2022
Caleb joined the Center for Crops Utilization Research in January 2022. As pilot plant manager, he is responsible for operations that occur in the pilot plant of the Food Sciences Building. These responsibilities include executing fee-for-service research projects, as well as maintenance and improvement of pilot plant equipment.
Caleb graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering in May of 2022. Most of his pilot plant experience resulted from work as an undergraduate research assistant at the BioCentury Research Farm. This work included biomass handling and processing, facility and equipment maintenance and improvement, and working with industry and academic clients on fee-for-service projects.
Ben Yeager
Technical Project Specialist byeager@iastate.edu Phone : 815-579-9134
Education:
B.S., Biology with a minor in Chemistry, Aurora University, 2017
M.S., Bioprocessing and Bioenergy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023
Ben Yeager joined the CCUR center in January 2023. Prior to working at CCUR Ben worked as a Research Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim working on developing animal therapeutics. Additional prior experiences included working as a Production Scientist for Millipore Sigma where he focused on the production of high purity inorganic chemicals.
