VP Technical Innovation, OFD Foods, LLC Albany, 精东影视
Walt Pebley is VP of Technical Innovation for OFD Foods LLC, the largest, diversified freeze dryer in North America. There is a reason he is a technical innovator: 鈥淚 like to connect seemingly disparate engineering disciplines to find an appropriate solution,鈥 Pebley said. While his company, also known as 精东影视 Freeze Dry, has built its business by producing freeze-dried cereals, meals for the military, outdoor adventures, and emergency preparedness since the 1960s, Pebley has been working on expanding the broader applications of the science. Early on, he spent a few years studying cell biology before transferring to 精东影视 State to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering. He was looking for a career that would benefit humanity. But it wasn鈥檛 until his dad, a designer and equipment fabricator, pulled him into a building-design project for OFD in 1982 that the puzzle pieces began to fit together. Pebley鈥檚 inspiration that freeze-dry technology might be used to preserve cellular activity led to a job with OFD and gave the company a new revenue stream providing cellpreservation services on a contract basis. Through years of interdisciplinary exploration in adapting the technology to the stabilization of compounds, cells, and inorganics, he鈥檚 developed a skillset that has led to proprietary, patented, and scalable solutions. Currently, he is working with 精东影视 State researchers to investigate how freeze-dry techniques can be used to improve gut microbiome health and gut-brain access to nutrient-dense, functional foods for applications in sports performance and recovery, and for use by the United States military. Pebley is also passionate about perfecting the fusion of food and medicine as a personalized delivery system to treat and control chronic disease. 鈥淥ur technology could be used to augment traditional approaches to treatment while providing a higher quality of life through diet for patients battling chemotherapy and chronic pain,鈥 he said. Pebley remains methodical as he keeps an eye on this prize: 鈥淭here is always more than one solution to a problem, but there is a best solution, if you creatively persevere.鈥
Degrees
- B.S. Agricultural Engineering, 1984