Lili He is Assistant Professor of Food Science at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her PhD degree from University of Missouri-Columbia in 2009 and did her postdoc training in University of Minnesota between 2009 and 2012. Then she joined the faculty in the Food Science Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst as an Assistant Professor in 2012.

Dr. He’s major research focus is to develop and apply the most advanced and innovative analytical techniques to help solve critical and emerging issues in food science. The central tool of Lili’s research is surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which is a combination of Raman spectroscopy and nano-techniques. The use of metallic nanostructure enhances the Raman signals more than a million times. Her group has developed various SERS based techniques for food safety and food chemistry applications.  In food safety applications, she developed various rapid SERS methods for detecting chemical, biological, and engineered nanoparticle contaminants in complex food matrices. In food chemistry applications, she applied SERS for the characterization of food components and their interactions.

In just three years being independent, Dr. He has successfully obtained external funding ($1,655,828 as PI, $3,638,274 in total, mainly from USDA-NIFA) and published 40 papers (>1100 citation and h-index 15). Lili’s publications have received several recognitions including being named a Top ten articles in Analyst in the July, 2011 issue and the number 1 cited paper in the Journal of Food Science in 2008.  In addition, she has been invited to give 17 talks including several at international venues.  Lili’s research excellence has been recognized by the International Union of Food Science and Technology and the Agriculture (IUFoST) and Food Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS-AGFD) where she received their Young Scientist awards in 2012 and 2015, respectively.