Felicia Wu
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John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in Food Safety, Toxicology, and Risk Assessment & University Distinguished Professor
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Phone:
517-432-4442
Email:
fwu@msu.edu
Degrees:
PhD, Carnegie Mellon University
AB, SM, Harvard University
CV:
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Publications on Google Scholar
Felicia Wu, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor, joined the faculty of MSU in 2013 with a joint appointment in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. Previously, she was an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh.
Wu’s research examines the national and global burden of foodborne disease, how improved nutrition can counteract the harmful effects of toxins, and how cost-effective strategies can improve food safety in the United States and worldwide. Recently, her work has expanded to examine the risk of antimicrobial resistance from antibiotic use in livestock production, as well as how we can curb these risks. For her research on the impact of aflatoxin regulations on global liver cancer, Wu was awarded a U.S. National Institutes of Health EUREKA Award. She was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) to estimate the global burden of disease caused by aflatoxin and arsenic in food, and co-authored the WHO 2015 report on the Global Burden of Foodborne Disease.
Currently, Wu serves as an expert adviser to the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations. She is an area editor for three journals: Risk Analysis, World Mycotoxin Journal, and Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health. Recently, she was on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences panel on the future of animal sciences research for global food security. Currently, she serves as an invited reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She has also been selected to serve on the MSU Presidential Search Committee. Wu earned her A.B. and S.M. in applied mathematics and medical sciences at Harvard University, and her Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Research and Outreach Interests
- Global burden of disease caused by food contaminants
- World food trade and the impact of food safety regulations
- Mycotoxins: Economic and health impacts worldwide
- Transgenic crops: Mycotoxin reduction, and insect resistance to transgenic pest-protected plants
- Risk assessment and risk communication
- Social network models and agent-based models applied to population health and trade
Research and Teaching
Fields: Food Safety, Toxicology, Mycotoxins, Food Security, Nutrition, Global Health and the Environment, Agricultural Health, Agricultural Biotechnology, Public Health, Climate Change, Indoor Air Quality
Methods: Mathematical Modeling, Quantitative Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Risk Communication, Economics, Policy Analysis
Courses Taught
FSC 891: Food and Environmental Risk Assessment
FSC 890: Concepts in Agricultural Health
HNF 823: Research Methods in Human Nutrition (guest lecture in Bioinformatics)
CEP 991B: Social Networks
Coca-Cola Webinar on Food Safety Risk Assessment
Related Work
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MSU team to use $611K USDA grant to explore heavy metals in crops
Published on August 17, 2023
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MSU-led team receives $10M USDA grant to develop more resilient food systems
Published on February 9, 2023
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MSU researcher appointed to World Health Organization group studying global impact of foodborne disease
Published on June 7, 2021
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Felicia Wu named Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis
Published on December 17, 2020
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Foodborne diseases from dairy products in developing countries: Review of causes and health and economic implications
Published on November 6, 2020
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