Meet Our Experts: Tim

Medallion Labs is more than food tests and accurate results. We’re a team of scientific experts finding innovative ways to serve customers better. To know us best, you need to know the people behind the numbers. Find out who makes us great and why Medallion Labs is the partner of choice for top food companies.

Meet Tim

Tim is a Medallion Labs physical testing scientist. He collaborates with other Medallion Labs food scientists to provide accurate material property information. His responsibilities include answering questions about thermal phenomena, particle size properties, color measurements, and rheological properties.

Tim’s journey began by earning a degree in chemistry, followed by two years of analytical lab servicing in the food industry. He joined Medallion Labs in the microscopy/imaging lab. Here, Tim sharpened his customer interaction skills while becoming familiar with a wide range of client backgrounds, disciplines, and product platforms. From there, Tim moved into physical testing, where he eventually took on the lead role in the lab. After ten years, Tim continues to broaden his skills through ongoing instrument training from manufacturers and coursework at the University of Minnesota. He loves to keep pace with the ever-improving field of physical property testing.

An Expert Resource for Food Testing Clients

While lab work was his initial passion, Tim found a greater appreciation for solving customer questions with physical testing. Much of his day is spent talking and emailing clients to understand their unique needs. He enjoys solving their challenges and identifying new ways to match Medallion Labs’ capabilities to customer queries. He describes himself as “a motivated tinkerer who is invigorated by a lab atmosphere that is used for figuring out what makes things work and why.” Measuring physical phenomena and understanding how that relates to a customer’s process, ingredient, or other interest presents constantly changing challenges. “The big payoff comes when I hear from a customer, ‘We figured it out!’”

Finding Ways to Answer Client Questions

The biggest challenge (and reward) we face in the physical testing lab is how to help clients with their complex questions. There are very few established food testing methodologies that can adequately answer our customers’ questions about products or systems. What they want to know may not always be easily attainable through our standard tests—but, often, we can find a way. Through close collaboration with our clients, Medallion Labs scientists identify ways to tightly define and frame questions in terms that can be reliably measured and answered. In some situations, we can even develop a methodology to answer a question. As Tim says, “it’s fulfilling to push ourselves while serving our Medallion Labs customers.”

Advice For Aspiring Food Scientists

When talking to potential food scientists, Tim offers this insight. “Many different disciplines, interests, and skills can make a great contributor to this industry. The role has such a broad range of applications and specialties that my best advice would be to pursue the hard science that grabs your interest and follow that to wherever that discipline leads. Do what you were made to do; that’s what I’m doing.”

Our Experts Make Food Testing Successful

Tim is a difference-maker for Medallion Labs and our customers. His work advances a client’s capabilities or understanding, sometimes profoundly, one project at a time. Of course, this can be said of all Medallion Labs experts. We meet testing requests with accurate, reliable results. When considering Medallion Labs for ingredient analysis and food testing, we suggest referring to our tech data sheets and online order form for the latest details. Our breadth of testing options helps you maximize your testing budget by providing the results you seek in a cost-efficient manner.

Medallion Labs is ready to use our testing options, expertise, and skills for your testing needs. Connect with us or call 1-800-245-5615 to discuss the criteria and testing needs for your food products.