Felicia Wu
Publications on Google Scholar
Felicia Wu is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Food Safety, Toxicology, and Risk Assessment at Michigan State University; and President of the Society for Risk Analysis. Recently she was appointed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as a Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development for the state of Michigan, and named as one of ten University Distinguished Professors at MSU. Dr. Wu works at the nexus of agriculture, biotechnology, food safety and nutrition, and public health to improve global human health outcomes. Currently she has nine extramural grants and one World Health Organization contract, with topics ranging from assessing the impact of climate change and transgenic Bt corn production on aflatoxin risks, improving resilience of food systems against shocks, reducing presence of mycotoxins, heavy metals, and pathogens in food crops, and assessing effects of dairy consumption and aflatoxin M1 on Ethiopian children’s health. Dr. Wu is a Member of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), a Member of the WHO Food-Based Dietary Guidelines Committee, an elected Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, and has previously served on a NASEM committee on the future of animal sciences research and as a NASEM speaker on food safety of lab-grown foods. Dr. Wu earned her PhD in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and AB and SM in Applied Mathematics/Medical Sciences at Harvard 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