Rate My Professor Wan-Yuan Kuo

Kuo's research specializations center on sustainable food product development, creating products that are healthy for humans and the environment by sourcing local, specialty, and Indigenous crops to produce nutritious, palatable, and culturally responsive foods. Key lab projects include fermentation processes for nutritious beverages benefiting rural communities in Senegal through the PATH program, high-tech food extrusion using Montana-grown lentils to develop puffs and meat analogs, and value-added processing for small fruits and berries in the Intermountain West. She actively works on decolonizing, indigenizing, and internationalizing food and nutrition curricula. Kuo has delivered public lectures such as "Indigenizing Food Science for Food Sovereignty" in the MSU Honors Presents series and holds leadership positions, including association with the Center for Science, Technology, Ethics and Society. Among her honors are the Montana University System Teaching Scholar award in 2020, selection as a Faculty for the Future Fellow, and recognition as a recipient of the New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award. Selected key publications include "Twelve Weeks of Daily Lentil Consumption Improves Fasting Cholesterol and Postprandial Glycemic Response in Adults with Prediabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial" (2024), "The need and development for a value-added toolkit—A case study with Montana specialty fruit growers" (Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2023), "Identifying sensory drivers of liking for plant-based milk coffees" (Journal of Food Science, 2022), and "Developing culturally acceptable peanut nutrition bars to empower smallholder women farmers in Senegal" (2022). Her contributions advance food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and global nutrition innovation through collaborations with Indigenous communities, international partners, and local growers.