Folarin Oguntoyinbo is an associate professor of fermentation microbiology at the AR Smith Department of Chemistry and Fermentation Sciences at Appalachian State University. He was previously a professor at the University of Lagos (Akoka) in Nigeria. Oguntoyinbo was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Georg Forster fellow based at the Max Rubner-Institute for microbiology and biotechnology in Kiel, Germany in 2014-2015. He also spent time in the United Kingdom, serving as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham and as a Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society (2008-2011) based at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich. He is the recipient of the International Association for Food Protection’s (IAFP) 2016 Food Safety Award for a Professional in a Country with a Developing Economy and received the Overseas Development Award of the UK Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) in 2004. He was a member of the University of Lagos Senate and now serves as a member of various committees at Appalachian State University. He is an active member of American Society for Microbiology, IAFP, and SfAM.
Oguntoyinbo’s teaching focuses on traditional fermented foods and beverages, reading, and writing in the fermentation sciences, the social implications of fermented beverages, sensory evaluation, and fermentation microbiology. His research focuses on the microbiome of fermented foods and beverages, their biochemical changes, sensory attributes, and process optimization with the aim of furthering food safety and improved quality. He is also testing hypotheses that could potentially improve industrial fermentation systems and continues to partner with various institutes in Germany on the development of multifunctional starter cultures for industrial fermented foods and beverage processing.
