Speaker Biographies

Dr. Carl Winter

Dr. Carl Winter is the Director of the FoodSafe Program and an Extension Food Toxicologist in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California at Davis. Prior to coming to Davis in 1991, he was an Extension Toxicologist at the University of California at Riverside from 1987-91, a science staff writer for the Richmond-Times Dispatch newspaper in 1985, and an Environmental Hazards Specialist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture from 1980-83. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry and a B.S. in Environmental Toxicology, both from the University of California at Davis. His research and outreach work focus upon pesticide residues and naturally-occurring toxins in foods. He has authored two books and nearly 100 publications in both the scientific and lay literature. He also gives more than 60 news media interviews annually and has frequently been invited to testify before the U.S. Congress on pesticide/food safety issues. He currently serves as Chairperson of the Food Science Communicators of the Institute of Food Technologists.

MUSICAL DESCRIPTION:

He's been called the "Elvis of E. coli," the "Sinatra of Salmonella," and the "Artist Formerly Known as Prince of Pesticides" by various news media sources. To perform his duties in providing science-based food safety information, he has added a new wrinkle in information dissemination – food safety music! Armed with a computer and synthesizer, Winter performs musical parodies of contemporary popular music by modifying lyrics to make them appropriate to food safety issues such as bacterial contamination, irradiation, biotechnology, government regulation, and pesticides. He has educated and rocked food science audiences throughout the country with his interactive live performances while more than ten thousand of his self-produced "Stayin' Alive" and "Sanitized For Your Consumption" CDs have been distributed all over the world. His most recent CD, “Still Stayin’ Alive” consists of the most popular songs from the first two CDs plus some newer songs and was released in September 2001. To find out more about his music, visit his Web site at http://foodsafe.ucdavis.edu/music.html

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For Further Information Contact:
Graduate School, USDA
Phone: (202) 314-3459
E-mail: fsis.outreach@usda.gov

Updated June 11, 2002