Dr. Daphna Havkin Frenkel– Vice-President, Director of Research and Development
Education
• MBA School of Management, Rutgers – The State University, Newark, NJ 2002
• Ph. D. Food Science, Rutgers – The State University, New Brunswick, NJ 1982
• M.S. Microbiology/ Plant Pathology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel 1975
• B.S. Plant Pathology/ Plant Physiology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel 1974
Dr. Daphna Havkin-Frenkel has unique qualifications. She holds a BS and an MS in the area of Agriculture, to a PhD in Food Science and an MBA from Rutgers University. Dr. Havkin-Frenkel has 25 years experience in the area of flavors, with expertise in vanilla biology and processing. She published extensively in the area of vanilla biotechnology, and has been invited to worldwide symposiums as a speaker on the subject. Dr. Havkin-Frenkel organized the first International Congress on Vanilla in Princeton, NJ in 2003, and the second in Cannes, France in 2004, as well as annual meetings on this topic in successive years. She has run a course on Vanilla Science and Technology on a bi-annual basis at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. She divides her time between Rutgers University, where she is carrying out studies on Vanilla Science and Technology with Dr. Faith Belanger (http://aesop.rutgers. edu/~belangerlab/research.htm) on the vanillin biosynthetic pathway in vanilla, instrumental analyses of vanilla flavor with Dr. Tomas Hartman (http://foodsci.rutgers.edu/hartman/index.html) and the development of new methods for the analysis of antioxidants together with Dr. Karen M. Schaich (http://foodsci.rutgers.edu/schaich/index.html). She also spent time collaborating with Dr. Rick Dixon (http://www.noble.org/plantbio/dixon/index.html) on the biosynthetic pathway to vanillin in the developing vanilla pod.
She is also carrying out collaborative work with scientists world-wide including Dr. Nativ Dudai (http://www.agri.gov. il/people/734.aspx) in Israel and ing. HJCJ van der Mheen (http://www.wewur.wur.nl/popups/vcard.aspx? id=MHEEN001&lang=uk) in Holland on selection and development of elite oregano cultivars. Daphna also organizes bi- annual meetings on the subject of Natural Preservatives and herbs.