Mary Theresa Callahan won first place for her graduate poster presentation titled  "Investigating metrics proposed to prevent the harvest of leafy green crops contaminated by flood water" at the IAFP 2015 annual meeting. Mary shared that "Winning the poster competition was a huge surprise, but it felt really good to get recognized for a project that has been the main focus of my last two years". Mary recently graduated from the University of Maryland with her Masters in Food Science; her advisor was Dr. Robert Buchanan, Professor and Director of the Center for Food Safety and Security Systems (CFS3).

[caption id="attachment_435" align="alignnone" width="500"]Mary Callahan receiving the 1st Place Poster Award Plaque Mary Callahan receiving the 1st Place Poster Award Plaque[/caption]

The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) annual meeting is one of the premier events within the food safety community. This year the meeting was held in Portland, Oregon. This was Mary's first time attending IAFP, "Getting to meet so many new scientists from around the world and learning about their different research focuses was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to go back next year".

Additionally, Mary Callahan was awarded an IAFP Student Travel Scholarship to attend the 2015 annual meeting. She was one of 18 students world-wide to receive the travel scholarship from IAFP.  She also received an award plaque at IAFP for this accomplishment.

Way to go, Mary!

[caption id="attachment_436" align="alignnone" width="502"]Mary Callahan receiving the Student Travel Scholarship Award Plaque Mary Callahan receiving the Student Travel Scholarship Award Plaque[/caption]

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