Dr. Nicole Martin

Dr. Nicole Martin is an Assistant Research Professor in Dairy Foods Microbiology and the Director of the Milk Quality Improvement Program (MQIP) in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University. Nicole grew up in the beautiful Southern Tier of New York State where she began a life-long love of dairy by working on a local dairy farm. She received her BS (’06), MS (’11), and PhD (’18) degrees in Food Science from Cornell University with minors in microbiology and animal science. 

 In her role, Nicole oversees the farm-to-consumer dairy microbiology research conducted in the MQIP and works closely with dairy industry stakeholders including producers and processors. Nicole’s research interests take a holistic approach to dairy product quality and safety, with the mindset that providing consumers with high quality dairy products must start at the farm and be a priority throughout processing, distribution, and retail. In particular, Nicole is interested in the transmission of dairy associated spoilage organisms from environmental niches into raw and processed dairy products, strategies to reduce or eliminate this transmission, the implications of spoilage organisms on finished products, and methods of detection.