The first North Dakota State University Bert L. D’Appolonia Endowed Associate Professorship in Cereal Science and Technology of Wheat has been awarded to Senay Simsek.

Simsek is a spring wheat chemist and associate professor in the NDSU Plant Sciences Department. She joined the department in 2007.

“In her short time at NDSU, Simsek has built a strong research program that is recognized internationally,” says Rich Horsley, professor and Plant Sciences Department head. “She has been very successful in obtaining grants to outfit a laboratory that had minimal analytical equipment when she arrived on campus to one that is fully equipped to address research problems associated with carbohydrate chemistry and wheat quality. Grant funding also was used to support a mix of service- and research-related projects.”

Simsek has published 47 peer-reviewed journal articles since coming to NDSU and has published more than 60 abstracts describing research that will lead to additional peer-reviewed publications.

In 2011, Simsek was awarded the Larson/Yaggie Excellence in Research Award. That award goes to an NDSU researcher with 10 or fewer years of service. Her other awards include the Andersons Early-in-Career Award of Excellence from the NC-213 U.S. Quality Grains Research Consortium and the 2013 AACC-I Young Scientist Research Award from the American Association of Cereal Chemists International.

The endowment is named after Bert L. D’Appolonia, who was a faculty member at NDSU from 1963 through 1993. He retired as a professor and chairman of the Department of Cereal and Food Sciences. He is recognized worldwide as an expert in cereal chemistry and end-use quality of hard red spring wheat. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Wheat Associates and North Dakota Wheat Commission since 1978. He also gave presentations on hard red spring wheat end-use quality and his research findings to personnel in more than 70 countries.

“Receiving the D’Appolonia endowment is such an amazing honor,” Simsek says. “Dr. D’Appolonia is not only a cereal scientist known worldwide, but also a great mentor. This is an important step in my career at NDSU, so I am very excited about it. Today, I am more committed than ever to the NDSU community that has brought me so much joy and success.”

Simsek earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bulent Ecevit University in Turkey and her doctorate in food science from Purdue University.

NDSU Agriculture Communication – Aug. 15, 2013