Food Science, M.S.

(SFDSC)

The school-level academic course plan for each student will be developed in consultation with the student’s graduate advisory committee. The committee will include the student’s major advisor and at least two additional members of the graduate faculty such that the LSU Graduate School’s requirements for graduate committees are satisfied.

The MS degree is a research degree requiring a thesis. A minimum of 30 hours of credit at the graduate level must be earned including at least six hours of credit for the thesis (NFS 8000 ). The curricular requirements include:

• Demonstration of competency in each of the core areas of food science, including food chemistry, food preservation, food composition and analysis, and food microbiology through previous course credits in these areas or through passing of a comprehensive examination given by the instructor in each area
• Two hours of NFS 7071 Seminar in Nutrition and Food Sciences (1) , four hours of EXST 7004 Experimental Statistics I (4)  or another graduate statistical course, minimum of three hours of electives in 7000 level courses, and six hours of NFS 8000 Thesis Research (1-12 per sem.)  
• All coursework approved by the student’s examining committee

Other degree requirements are submission of an oral and written research proposal to the advisory committee. The advisory committee must be chosen and approved by the school head and graduate coordinator within one year of enrollment in the graduate program. The first graduate seminar for credit should be an oral presentation that gives an introduction and brief literature review on the proposed research area and an outline of the proposed research to be conducted for the MS.

Students must have submitted one manuscript to a scientific journal and presented their research at one national meeting before graduation. Students are expected to attend all school seminars (graduate, faculty, and invited speakers) whether enrolled for credit or not.

Students must present a public oral seminar on the thesis research before the final exam. A student must pass a comprehensive final oral examination by the student’s advisory committee on food science topics and the completed research area.