James Gorny, Ph.D., is the vice president for food safety and technology for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) in Newark, DE. He assists produce industry members with food safety, product quality, biotechnology, agricultural innovation, process and packaging technology and environmental sustainability. Gorny also works extensively with the Center for Produce Safety to identify, fund and provide industry with high priority and impactful produce safety research solutions.

Prior to joining PMA Gorny was the senior advisor for produce safety at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition where he provided scientific and technical expertise in evolving policy, foodborne illness outbreaks, regulatory follow-up investigations, education/outreach programs and risk-based research needs to improve the safety of fresh produce.

Before working at FDA, Gorny was the executive director of the Postharvest Technology Research and Information Center at the University of California-Davis. He received his Ph.D. in plant biology from the UC-Davis and his bachelor’s and master degrees in food science from Louisiana State University.