Michael Tunick has been an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Food and Hospitality Management at Drexel University since 2017. In the 32 years prior to that, he was a research chemist with the Eastern Regional Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Wyndmoor, Pa. There, he planned and conducted research aimed at creating new dairy products and expanding marketability of existing products. He led and executed his research unit’s effort on basic and applied aspects of rheology of dairy commodities. Tunick has expertise in thermal analysis of dairy products and pathogens using differential scanning calorimetry, microstructural analysis using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and rheology of materials using texture profile analysis and small amplitude oscillatory shear analysis. Tunick has authored or coauthored over 130 publications, has coedited seven books, and has cochaired over 20 symposia in the Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry (AGFD) in the American Chemical Society (ACS). He has been invited to present seminars on cheese research across the U.S., including more than 50 presentations at universities and at local sections of ACS and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). He has also been invited to present seminars about the science of chocolate for the Royal Society of Chemistry and an ACS local section. ACS has asked him to present webinars to their membership on the chemistry of both cheese and chocolate. He served as AGFD chair in 2001, secretary from 2003 to 2018, and councilor starting in 2019. He was named a fellow of the ACS in 2011 and Oxford University Press published his book The Science of Cheese in 2013. The Philadelphia section of IFT presented him with the Julius Bauermann Award in 2019.
Professional Society
American Chemical Society, Thermal Analysis Forum
Selected Publications
Tunick, M. H., Mackey, K. L., Shieh, J. J., Smith, P. W., Cooke, P., & Malin, E. L. (1993). Rheology and microstructure of low-fat Mozzarella cheese. International Dairy Journal, 3(7), 649-662. https://doi.org/10.1016/0958-6946(93)90106-a
Tunick, M. H. (2000). Rheology of dairy foods that gel, stretch, and fracture. Journal of Dairy Science, 83(8), 1892-1898. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(00)75062-4
Tunick, M. H. (2008). Whey protein production and utilization: a brief history. In C. I. Onwulata & P .J. Huth (Eds.), Whey processing, functionality and health benefits (pp. 1-13). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780813803845.ch1
Tunick, M. H. (2011). Small-strain dynamic rheology of food protein networks. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 59 (5), 1481-1486. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf1016237
Tunick, M. H., Onwulata, C. I., Thomas, A. E., Phillips, J. G., Mukhopadhyay, S., Sheen, S., ... & Cooke, P. H. (2013). Critical evaluation of crispy and crunchy textures: a review. International Journal of Food Properties, 16(5), 949-963. https://doi.org/10.1080/10942912.2011.573116
Grant participation:
New Dairy-Based Food Product Development and Sensory Analysis of Consumer Preference, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 2019
Editorial review board membership:
Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry
Research Interests
Physical chemistry of food, dairy products, food analysis, artisanal food
Specialization
- Physical chemistry of food
- Dairy products
- Food analysis