Environmental Findings of the E. coli O157:H7 Spinach Outbreak

Maha Hajmeer, Ph.D.
California Department of Public Health

Dr. Hajmeer is a research scientist with the California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch, primarily involved in food safety and public health with emphasis on foodborne outbreak investigations. Dr. Hajmeer's other areas of expertise include detection and control of foodborne pathogens, predictive microbiology and modeling of growth/survival of foodborne pathogens, and applied microbiology and intervention strategies to reduce pathogens in meat and meat products.

Before joining the California Department of Public Health, Dr. Hajmeer was employed at the University of California-Davis and was heavily involved in teaching of and research in food safety. The bulk of research projects that Dr. Hajmeer supervised or co-supervised were funded by either the government or industry, and dealt with the detection and control of zoonotic foodborne pathogens (e.g., Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Listeria monocytogenes) at the pre- and post-harvest levels, and the microbial ecology of pathogens in foods. Other research areas included detection of central nervous system tissues or risk materials in meats and predictive microbiology. The outcomes of research has been largely published in many journal papers and proceedings and presented in significant related technical conferences, meetings and annual conventions.

Dr. Hajmeer serves on numerous professional committees and steering groups, as well as a member of the editorial board of both the Journal of Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology, and the Internet Journal of Food Safety. Dr. Hajmeer is a peer reviewer on grant proposals for USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), and technical journals including Applied Microbiology, Food Microbiology, Journal of Food Protection, Journal of Food Science, Letters in Applied Microbiology, Meat Science, and Microbiological Methods. Finally, Dr. Hajmeer is the recipient of a number of awards in the area of food safety and microbiology including the International Association for Food Protection Developing Scientist Award, and most recently the US Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Leveraging/Collaboration Award and the California Department of Health Services Superior Accomplishment Award.

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