Dr. McDowell is a practicing engineer with 15+ years of industrial experience in R&D, applications development, technical service, and manufacturing. She has demonstrated product development experience and process design expertise in laboratory, pilot, and commercial-scale equipment across multiple business sectors - including food ingredients, enzymes, bioactive cultures, natural and synthetic polymers.
Specialties: Particle science and technology; Industrial drying technologies (spray-drying, fluid bed drying/coating, freeze-dying, vacuum/tray drying); Particle formation and isolation via solid-liquid separations; Moisture analysis and modeling, Process safety management; HACCP, Aspen®; SharePoint®; Prezi.
Engineering research toward commercialization and manufacturing improvements Research in particle formation and drying/isolation technologies to obtain free-flowing powders. Product development and material characterization.
Modeling of particle processing technologies including kinetic/time-dependent behaviors. Material basic data development and data mining.
Moisture analysis, characterization, and control methods including microencapsulation, water activity (aw), dynamic vapor sorption (DVS), water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), and diffusion process modeling.
Technology options evaluation and cost analysis. Vendor/ toll-manufacturer engagement for demonstration, production scale-up, and manufacturing services. Equipment design, process development and optimization. Operator training.
