We invite you to meet Julie Hess, this year’s Sylvia Rowe Fellow. Julie is finishing her Ph.D. in human nutrition at the University of Minnesota and has bachelors’ degrees in English and French from the University of Texas at Austin.

Part of her motivation to return to school for a graduate degree is Julie’s passion for all things food: from reading and learning about it to shopping for it and cooking it. To balance out her food and cooking interests, Julie is also a self-professed gym rat who loves cycling class and weightlifting.

How do you sum up your background in one sentence: The thread that links my background in the humanities with my current career in science is my interest in effective and accurate communication.  

What most surprises me about nutrition scientists: Since I started my graduate program without a background in nutrition, I was amazed by how many other nutrition scientists also love macaroni and cheese! It’s great.

My favorite movie is: In terms of a movie I could watch over and over? Notting Hill, hands down. Spike is the best.

For breakfast this morning I had: Fried eggs, multigrain toast, and iced coffee. I’m a big fan of big breakfasts.

My secret talent is: I am an avid home fermenter and have experimented with making everything from kombucha to kimchi to beet kvass. I also tend to be known as the person who will try any kind of food.

One thing I cook well is: Soft scrambled eggs. It takes some time to perfect the technique for perfectly silky eggs!

If I had to eat one meal for the rest of my life, it would be: A full English breakfast, black pudding and all.

The best thing about working at the IFIC Foundation is: I’m only about a week in, but so far, I’m finding the breadth of material IFIC covers in their communications just amazing. And I love that I can write informally sometimes.