Rate My Professor William Kuo

William Kuo serves as an associate professor of food science within the Department of Food Systems, Nutrition, and Kinesiology at Montana State University, part of the College of Education, Health, and Human Development. He earned his Ph.D. in 2016 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with an M.S. in 2009 and a B.S. in 2007 from National Taiwan University. As the director of the Food Product Development Lab (FPDL), Kuo oversees a team of staff and students engaged in innovative research aimed at sustainable food systems. His academic career at MSU includes recognition as a Montana University System (MUS) Teaching Scholar in 2020, awarded for efforts to make health and human development curriculum more accessible and valuable to diverse student bodies. Additionally, he is a recipient of the Faculty for the Future Fellowship from Shell and has secured Faculty Excellence Grants, including one in 2023-2024 for strategic planning to enhance research cost effectiveness, real-life impact, and dissemination.

Kuo's research specializations encompass food product innovation, value-added processing of regional crops like Montana-grown lentils, and development of culturally sensitive nutrition solutions for global communities. Notable projects include peanut nutrition bars for Senegal to support rural entrepreneurship, high-moisture extrusion using lentil flour, starch, and protein concentrates for meat analogs and puffs, and fermentation for nutritious beverages benefiting West African villages. His lab contributes to initiatives such as the Montana Flour Milling Innovation Lab and NSF ADVANCE programs promoting indigenous food science. Key publications include "Twelve Weeks of Daily Lentil Consumption Improves Fasting Cholesterol and Postprandial Triglycerides in Adults with Central Obesity" (2024); "The need and development for a value-added toolkit—A case study on the Montana Flour Milling Innovation Lab" (2023); "Developing culturally acceptable peanut nutrition bars for Senegal" (2022); "Incorporating community culture in teaching food innovation: Lessons learned from a course-based undergraduate research experience" (2020); and "Exploring the potential of flour, starch concentrate, and protein concentrate from Montana-grown lentils in high-moisture extruded meat analogs" (2024). With 290 citations across 16 works, Kuo's contributions advance health science through sustainable nutrition.