Bio for Lorna Zach

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Lorna is currently working as a Scientist at the Center for Human Performance and Risk Assessment at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She has over 15 years experience in the food processing and agriculturally-related industries, 4 years in environmental consulting and modeling, and 7 years experience using formal methods of risk analysis.

Lorna has a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and a BS in chemical engineering and an MS in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She has worked for Pillsbury/Green Giant in the US and Mexico, as well as Procter & Gamble, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Wisconsin State Department of Natural Resources, and Alpine Dairy Products, Ltd., a New Zealand Dairy Co-operative.

Lorna has worked on such major risk-related events as pesticide contamination of milk, microbial contamination of a spray dry milk plant, the E. coli O157:H7 risk assessment, as well as sprout seed and fresh produce bans and the risk-bond estimate for the Auckland Regional sewage treatment plant. She lived in New Zealand for 14 years and among other things, worked for the largest dairy co-operative on the South Island as the Technical Manager for three sites with an annual operating budget of one million dollars. In addition to process plant oversight, this position included supervision over farm quality assurance and support. Over her career, she has worked in a variety of areas including Research & Development, engineering design and installation, management at the plant level, government regulation, consulting and she has authored several papers. She is currently a member of Society for Risk Analysis, the New Zealand Society for Risk Management, and the Institute of Food Technologists.