Kannapolis Mayor M. Darryl Hinnant presents CEPHT Director Leonard Williams, Ph.D. with a proclamation in council chambers in honor of his work at the research center and in recognition of his Senior Researcher of the Year award from N.C. A&T.

Leonard Williams, Ph.D., the director of N.C. A&T’s Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies (CEPHT) at the UNC Research Campus in Kannapolis, may already be a celebrated professor of food safety and microbiology.

But now, he can add two new accolades to his resume.

This spring, he was named the university’s Senior Researcher of the Year; and within the same month, was honored by the Kannapolis City Council with a proclamation at 6 p.m. on June 9 at Kannapolis City Hall.

“Mr. Mark Spitzer, president of Castle & Cooke - North Carolina, wanted to celebrate this accomplishment and share it with the Kannapolis community,” Williams said. “That was wonderful news.”

Williams, whose research interests include the incidence of food-borne pathogens in fruits and vegetables using molecular, immunological and epidemiological approaches, with the goal of identifying new strains and their ability to develop resistance to both natural and synthetically derived agents, has served as advisor to more than 50 graduate, 13 undergraduate and five post-doctoral scholars. He has been a professor at N.C. A&T since 2008 and director of the CEPHT since 2010.