Singh Appointed New Chair of HNFS

Professor Harmit Singh was named as the new chair of the Department of Human Nutrition & Food Science.

Singh has taught food chemistry, science, and technology at Cal Poly Pomona since 2011 when he was hired as an associate professor. He became the Huntley College of Agriculture’s director of research and graduate studies in 2015 and was promoted to full professor the following year.

“Harmit brings a calm and compassionate temperament along with successful and creative development experience which will serve the department and college well. I am eager to see the positive impacts the department will make under his leadership,” said Lisa Kessler, interim dean of the Huntley College of Agriculture.

“I believe that nutrition and food science department can be one of the well-recognized departments in California. I will support faculty, staff, and students to attain their full potential in order to achieve that,” Singh said.

Singh’s appointment as chair is effective at the start of spring quarter on March 26.

Prior to coming to Cal Poly Pomona, Singh spent seven years as an assistant and associate professor at the School of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science at Cal State Los Angeles.

A native of India, Singh earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry, master’s degree in organic chemistry, and a doctorate in bio-organic chemistry, all from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, India.

He served as an assistant professor in that university’s Department of Food Science & Technology from 1994 to 1998, before coming to the United States as a visiting scientist at Kansas State University. Singh spent five years at Kansas State, working in the departments of Chemistry and Grain Science and Industry.

He later became a post-doctoral research fellow with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service’s Grain Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kan.

Singh replaces Professor Martin Sancho-Madriz, who left last year to become associate dean in the College of Environmental Design. Professor Broc Sandelin of the Department of Animal & Veterinary Sciences served as the interim chair for human nutrition and food science.