UMass Virologist Matthew Moore Wins Outstanding Young Scientist Award

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Matthew Moore, an assistant professor of food science who is known for his work in food safety microbiology and specifically food-borne viruses, has received the Outstanding Young Scientist Award in honor of Samuel Cate Prescott from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).

Moore’s honor, which includes a $3,000 honorarium, will be bestowed at the IFT annual meeting in Chicago in July. The award is named in memory of Prescott, a pioneer in thermal food processing.  

“This is the highest award for a young scientist in the field,” says Lili He, professor of food scientist and department head, who herself received the same award in 2016.

A graduate of Cornell and North Carolina State, Moore joined the UMass Amherst faculty in 2018. Combining his interests in chemistry, microbiology and food, Moore focuses his research on food safety microbiology, specifically foodborne viruses such as the highly contagious norovirus.

“Being selected for this award is an incredible honor, and it is very humbling to see the other amazing scientists who have received it,” Moore says. 

Moore’s lab seeks to better understand virus-bacteria interactions in the gut; develops new cheap and efficient ways to detect viruses in foods and the environment, as well as better disinfectants able to kill foodborne viruses. 

Moore is already a leader in his field, having helped found the World Society for Virology (WSV) in 2017. WSV, which seeks to be accessible to virologists all over the world by foregoing any membership fee, has more than 1,600 members from over 96 countries.

“IFT is an amazing organization with which I have been lucky to be a member for the majority of my career,” Moore says.

In addition to Moore and He, other current UMass Amherst food scientists who have won the IFT’s Outstanding Young Scientist Award include Eric Decker (1997), David Julian McClements (1999) and Hang Xiao (2014).