Bornhorst, Gail

Lab Members

Postdoctoral Scholars

Graduate Students

Yamile Mennah

Yamile Mennah


Clay Swackhamer

Clay Swackhamer

Clay is a PhD student in Biological Systems Engineering. He is studying structural breakdown and nutrient release from solid foods during simulated human digestion. One model for human digestion that Clay is using is the human gastric simulator, a device available only at UC Davis that recreates the peristaltic contractions in the stomach using mechanical rollers. His current work applies fracture mechanics to understand the mechanical properties that control food structural breakdown, and uses tools such as image analysis and texture analysis to experimentally measure these processes in the lab.

Alex Olenskyj

Alex Olenskyj

Alex is a PhD student applying 4-dimensional imaging coupled with machine learning approaches to in vitro gastric digestion for the purpose of visualization, quantification, and prediction of food structural changes during the digestion process.

Berta Lascuevas

Berta Lascuevas

Berta is a Master’s student in Biological Systems Engineering. She is investigating the food structure modifications during processing to control starch digestibility in carbohydrate-based snack products.

Visiting Scholars

Corentin Lannuzel

Undergraduate Students

Arash Afsarifard

Arash Afsarifard

Arash is an undergraduate student in Biosystems Engineering. He is studying a dynamic model of gastric digestion, specifically on almond milk. The goal is to provide a more realistic representation of digestion for in vitro studies.

Kia Canning

Kia Canning

Riley Graham

Riley Graham

Riley Graham is an undergraduate student in food science studying various digestion properties of fruits.

Food Engineering Lab Alumni

Ph.D Graduates


M.S. Graduates


Postdoctoral Scholars


Undergraduate Interns and Visiting Interns

  • Karine Vilpont (2015) undergraduate intern from Reunion Island and Indian Ocean Engineering School (ESROI), Reunion Island
  • Felipe Jannuzzi Guerreiro (2015) undergraduate intern from University of São Paulo, Brazil
  • Yikai (Stephen) Ren (2015) undergraduate intern from Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
  • Camila Follador Lemos (2014 – 2015) undergraduate intern from Positivo University Paraná, Brazil
  • Joseph Chu (2015 – 2016) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Tiffany Ko (2015 – 2016) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Cindy Cheng (2016) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Vanessa Raharjo (2016) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Ellia La (2016) undergraduate intern from UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Department
  • Aaron Leong (2017) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Hongchang Cai (2017) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Talia Estevez (2017- 2018; 2019) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Kaela Kim (2018) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Xiaohan Cao (2018) undergraduate intern from UC Davis Food Science Department
  • Berta Lascuevas Laguna (2018) undergraduate intern from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
  • Natalia Cuba Pomares (2018) undergraduate intern from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
  • Maria Garcia Guerrero (2018-2019) undergraduate intern from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
  • Paola Navarro Vozmediano (2019) undergraduate intern from Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain


Visiting Scholars & Faculty

  • Simge Mutlu (2016) M.S. Student from University of Salerno, Italy
  • Erik Sewalt (2017) M.S. Student from Wageningen University
  • Danny Tagle (2017) M.S. Student from Wageningen University
  • Gaia Mannara (2018-2019) M.S. Student from University of Salerno, Italy
  • Valeria Eim (2019) Visiting Professor from University of Balearic Islands, Spain
  • Giustino Tribuzi (2020) Visiting Professor from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
  • Yadira Zambrano (2021-2022) Ph.D. Student from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
  • Corentin Lannuzel (2023) Ph.D. Student from Wageningen University, Netherlands

Group Photos